HTTYD The Engineer
by Tactition101
Summary: The Vikings of Berk have been fighting a war against dragons for 70 years. The chief's son Hiccup, has shown how his inventions can help fight them. Trained how to handle himself, he shows the world that you don't have to be full of muscle to fight. Update Time Frame is roughly once every eight weeks
1. Night Launch

HTTYD: The Engineer

Summary: The Vikings of Berk have been fighting a war against dragons for 70 years. The chief's son Hiccup, has shown how his inventions can help fight them. Trained how to handle himself, he shows the world that you don't have to be full of muscle to fight. However, he will soon show everyone that everything they thought they knew about fighting dragons and most importantly everything else about them was wrong.

1. Night Launch

Story Start: Berk

It was a calm night in the Viking village of Berk. There were no clouds blocking the stars and moon as they shone down on the village. Lights could be seen in most of the houses as well as torches being held by Vikings as they made their rounds.

The peace suddenly erupted into chaos as fire began raining down from the sky. Horns were blown as the Vikings mobilized to defend their home from the airborne threat.

In the chief's house, a boy ran down the stairs and began pulling the door open before he saw a large red dragon in front of the house. When the dragon, a monstrous nightmare, saw him, it opened it's huge mouth and blasted a stream of fire at him. The boy's eyes widened and he slammed the door and leaned against it as the edges glowed red.

Getting his heart rate back under control, the boy thought 'Better take the back door just to be safe.'

The boy then grabbed a three foot wooden canister that had hinges on one side that he had invented to help his village fight the dragons, slinging it over his shoulder using the attached strap, and strapped a device to his right arm that he had also invented. The device looked like a bunch of thin metal plates stacked over each other on with a large bolt in the middle keeping the stack of plates together.

Heading to the back of the house, the boy opened the door and looked out cautiously before stepping out and closing the door. Once the door was closed, the boy flicked his right arm to the side. As soon as his arm stopped moving, the momentum caused all but the top of the metal panels to slide until they clicked into place giving him a complete circular shield.

Lightly tapping the shield, the boy nodded to himself when the shield kept its locked form before he ran around the house and began heading to his post while keeping an eye out for any other dragons.

Halfway to his post, the boy caught sight of a short stubby dragon with humming bird wings heading straight to him. The boy briefly considered using the canister on his shoulder but realized that he didn't have time as the dragon, a gronkle, opened its mouth.

Thinking quickly, the boy brought his left hand to his mouth and blasted out a long high pitch whistle. The dragon's eyes lost focus before the dragon veered to the left and slammed into the ground a few feet away from the boy. As soon as it crashed landed, the dragon was dog piled by a nearby group of Vikings.

One of the Vikings looked at the boy and said "You all right there Hiccup?"

Said boy just nodded before he continued running to where he was assigned to go when things got hectic like they currently were.

Finally getting to his destination, the boy collapsed his shield and took it off as well as placing down the canister before grabbing a leather apron. As he did, the other person in the building noticed him.

"Ah, there you are Hiccup. I was beginning to worry that you had been eaten."

Hiccup looked at the Viking who had an interchangeable prosthetic for his left arm and said "Please Gobber, what would they do with me if they ever actually caught me?"

Gobber shrugged and said "They need toothpicks don't they?"

The two chuckled before Hiccup grabbed a sword and began sharpening it. As soon as he was finished he went to the pickup window and shouted "Sword!" A Viking rushed over and grabbed it before heading back into battle. As Hiccup was pulling his head back in to work on the next weapon, a fireball suddenly exploded against a house sending it into flames. A group of kids his age appeared and began throwing buckets of water on the fire. Hiccup watched them for a moment before he shook his head and focused on the rest of the world around him. He had more important things than staring even if he did want to be out there with them at the moment. Like answering the call for a reload for one of the boa launchers that he had invented.

Deciding to save time, Hiccup grabbed his own canister and gave it to the waiting Viking who took it and aimed at a gronkle that was making a run through the street and pressed a button on the canister. The canister opened before launching a boa at the gronkle, entangling its wings allowing for the Vikings around it to capture it.

The Viking handed the empty canister back to Hiccup who took both to a corner where other canisters and boas were and began the process of reloading the one shot launchers. They may be more accurate than most hand thrown ones, but Hiccup still couldn't figure out how to make them shoot more than one without making them too big to actually be mobile enough.

Off to the sides of the boas was one said launcher. It was on a cart for easier mobility and was about two feet longer than the hand held ones. A prototype, this launcher had a larger boa meant to take down the larger dragons and also was supposed to be able to launch much further than the smaller ones. However, Hiccup hadn't had a chance to test it yet in a live fire situation.

Just as Hiccup had reset the launching mechanism in the second boa and shut the case, a shrieking sound made itself known before an explosion erupted.

"A night fury." Hiccup muttered before Gobber said "Hiccup! They need me out there! Take care of the shop while I'm out."

The older Viking traded the tongs on his left hand for a hammer and headed for the door. Turning around, he saw that hiccup had one of the launchers over his shoulder and rolling the bigger launcher towards the door as well.

"And just where do you think you're going with that?" Gobber asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hiccup looked at him as he came to a stop and reached over to strap his shield on his arm and said "To test it. Night Furies never fly lower than one hundred feet over the ground. This will be a good field test."

Gobber sighed and said "You know your father is not going to like this."

"He will if it actually works." Hiccup said.

Gobber just sighed again and said "Just don't get roasted out there."

Hiccup gave a quick salute before he took off to find a good firing spot outside of the hot zone that his village had become.

Stopping on a hill that ended in a cliff with the village to his left, Hiccup popped the lid on the launcher causing the sides to fall down and the launcher to rise a bit before the sides of the launcher mechanism sprung open making it look more like a giant crossbow.

Hiccup turned the launcher towards the village and then aimed up at the night sky looking for anything that blocked out the night sky whose shape he didn't recognize. All of a sudden the telltale shriek sounded before a blue ball of fire slammed into one of the watchtowers. Hiccup saw the blur coming around in a long arc for another shot.

As soon as Hiccup had his own shot lined up on the blur, making sure to lead just it just a little, he pulled the trigger on the launched which launched the boa. A couple of seconds later he heard a roaring sound as the blur kept moving before losing altitude and crashing somewhere farther in land near Raven Point.

Hiccup's eyes widened as he realized he had hit the target on the first shot and pumped a fist in the air with a cry of "Yeah!"

He was reloading the launcher so that way he could try for one of the other flyers that was over the village when he heard a snort. Looking to the cliff edge, he saw a monstrous nightmare climbing over the edge. As the dragon looked at Hiccup, he knew that he was in trouble. There was no way he could use the bigger launcher at this close range and expect the boa to unfurl enough to actually work and his smaller launcher would be like throwing a pebble at his father.

'Oh crap.' Hiccup thought before the dragon opened its mouth and shot a stream of fire at Hiccup who dodged out of the way flicking his shield open as soon as he came back up and began backing away. Where he was standing, burning embers were the only things that showed the launcher was ever there.

The dragon gave a snort that Hiccup swore sounded like an evil chuckle before it launched another shot. Hiccup dodged again and mentally counted '2' in his head keeping count of how many shots were fired like his father had taught him.

The dragon then lowered itself like a cat getting ready to pounce causing Hiccup's eyes to widen before he brought up his left hand to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle just as the nightmare launched itself. Hiccup jumped to the left as the misbalanced dragon went past his right and landed in a heap. Not giving it time to get up, Hiccup began whistling in short blasts keeping the dragon disoriented as he began backing up rapidly towards the village.

Back in the village, most of the dragons had been either captured or killed with the rest taking off to head back to their nest. As the chief was looking at a trio of groncles that were caught under a net, he heard someone whistling in short blasts.

Looking toward where it was coming from along with a few other Vikings who could hear it, they saw brief streams of fire illuminating a boy doing his best to dodge with his left hand to his mouth.

The chief's eyes widened before he groaned and said "Doesn't that boy ever listen? Come on!" And with that he and some of the other Vikings took off to help the boy.

Back with Hiccup, he had just dodged the six shot and thought 'That's six. Just got to dodge one more and then it's just a matter of staying out of its reach.'

His back then hit a post for one of the outside torch beacons causing him to accidentally stop whistling. The dragon snorted with an evil look in its eye and blasted the kid while it could still aim properly again. Or at least it would have if it's mouth was shoved to the side causing him to miss again.

The dragon glared at the man who had caused it to miss and opened its mouth to shoot again but only smoke came out drawing a concerned look from it and causing the man to smirk.

"You're out of shots." The man said before he rushed the dragon and punched it in the jaw causing it to fly back a few feet. The dragon got up and shook its head before it took off running, er flying.

Hiccup meanwhile was trying to get his heartbeat back to more normal levels before the man turned towards him and walked over saying "Hiccup! How many times have I told you not to try and take on a dragon on your own?"

Hiccup swallowed and said "Sorry dad, but I wasn't planning on fighting that thing. I had been testing out the new launcher."

Stoick rose an eyebrow and said "Really, and what might I ask did you test it on?"

Hiccup was finally able to stop leaning against the pole for support and said "The night fury. I was able to hit it and it crashed somewhere over my Raven Point."

Murmurs spread throughout the crowd and Stoik said "Are you certain?"

Hiccup nodded and said "Absolutely. We should form some search parties and go find it."

Stoik thought about it for a moment before shaking his head and said "No, that wouldn't accomplish anything. It's too dark right now to search properly and I doubt the dragon could survive a fall from a hundred feet if the boa did its job. Right now the most important thing is making sure all of the fires are out and start repairing what we need to. Why don't you go ahead and get some sleep son."

Hiccup sighed but nodded and headed back to the house. As he did, Gobber came up and said "You know, if Hiccup actually did take down that night fury, we could have him make some more of those launchers and put them up on the lookout platforms. They could probably come in handy next time."

Stoik nodded before he and the rest of the Vikings went back to the village to begin damage control. No one noticed as the back door of the chief's house opened and the boy running to the forest.


	2. SearchAndReleaseBeginningDragonTraining

2. Search And Release/Beginning Dragon Training

Author's Notes: I've decided to go ahead and post what I have for this one and my other potential stories just to see what you think so far. I think what I will end up doing is just doing all six. After I get Second chapter of Master up, I'll put up the next chapter for Prince. Now then, on to the show.

As the sun rose over the island, the sun's rays filtered down through the trees revealing Hiccup walking while looking at a map that he had drawn in one of his books and marking an x over an area.

'I've been looking all over the island near Raven Point and I still haven't found it yet. Dad was right, night time is no time to look for something that could blend in so well at night. I could have covered ground much faster if I could've seen more than five feet in front of me.'

Hiccup was so distracted that he didn't notice the branch until he walked right into it. Looking at it, he followed the low hanging branch to it's shorter than usual tree and noticed that it was at a weird angle, almost parallel to the ground, and its roots were partially tore from the ground. The tree looked like a giant had made it its business to push it down and the top part looked like something had snapped off the part that was above it.

Frowning, he walked in the direction the tree was bent towards. A short while later he came across what looked like a shallow but wide ditch dug through the ground. Kneeling down, he ran his hand over the dirt and thought 'This dirt was recently disturbed. Looks like I found where the Fury made landfall, quite literally in this case.'

Following the path up a small hill, his eyes widened and he ducked back down at the sight on the other side. Rising a little to take another look at what he found, Hiccup allowed himself to relax a little as he saw that his target wasn't going to be trying anything in its current state. The Fury was currently on its side with the boa wrapped around its body and tail. The dragon's eyes were closed but Hiccup saw that its side was moving telling him that it was still alive.

'Dad was wrong, it did survive. How though is another question. A fall from that height and at that speed should have broke every bone in its body.' Hiccup thought as he studied the black dragon before him. After a minute, he stood up and walked over to it. As he did, the dragon's eye snapped open and focused on him causing him to stop. The dragon stared at him before its eye closed again. Hiccup walked towards it again pulling out a dagger and flicking his shield open in case the dragon was actually able to try something. Once he was closer, Hiccup noticed something that caused his eyes to widen.

Part of the tail was missing. The left fin that would have allowed the dragon to control it's flight was tore off and nowhere to be seen. Hiccup could see a dried blood pool and a large scab was already formed over where the rip in the dragon's skin was. It was obvious that either the boa had clipped it when it wrapped the dragon or said dragon had had an even rougher landing than Hiccup had originally thought. Either way, the dragon would never be able to fly properly again, not without the bones of the fin there for the skin to grow over again.

Shaking his head at the sight, Hiccup murmured catching the dragon's attention again "What a terrible fate. To belong in the sky and not be able to reach it." Looking back at the dragon's head and into its eye, he thought sadly 'I would be doing it a favor.'

Hiccup switched his knife into a reverse grip and placed the tip where the heart would be before catching sight of the dragon's eye. It had a look that told him that while it was terrified, it was resigned to its fate. The eye closed again and Hiccup focused back to where he was about to stab and thought 'I can't do it.' Sighing Hiccup said "Well some Viking I turn out to be. I can invent ways for us to fight dragons but for the life of me I can't take one's life myself. Talk about being a hypocrite. By Odin, what's wrong with me?"

Hiccup looked at the dragon again and bit his lip before he seemed to come to a decision. Flipping the knife back to a normal grip, he began cutting. The dragon's eyes opened and it looked back as it heard the ropes around it being cut. As he cut, Hiccup thought 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this. But I can't just leave it here. That would be even worse.'

The final rope then snapped apart as it was cut. The Fury then moved in a blur and slammed Hiccup into a boulder keeping a foot on him to keep him pinned. Hiccup stared at it as terrified of it as it was of him the moment before as the dragon growled at him. After a moment, Hiccup felt something come over him and he closed his eyes before opening them again and looked the dragon in the eye. As he did, the dragon looked like he was looking into his soul through their eyes. It then gave a bigger growl before it snorted and released Hiccup before turning around and took off trying to fly as it traveled deeper in the forest.

Hiccup stayed where he was for a moment getting his heart rate under control. Once he did, he thought 'What in the name of Odin was that? It felt almost like we kind of connected for a moment.' Shaking his head, Hiccup took off back to the village. He had a lot to think about.

Scene Change: Viking Village

It was just getting dark as Hiccup made his way inside his house. He noticed his father stoking the fire as he came in. Sighing and deciding to get things over with he said "Dad, I need to talk to you."

Stoick turned around and nodded saying "So do I Hiccup."

Hiccup rose an eyebrow and said "Okay, why don't you go first."

Stoick stood up and said "You got your wish Hiccup. You and the other teenagers are going to be starting dragon training with Gobber starting tomorrow. Once he's done you'll be able to actually fight a dragon instead of just staying alive. He's going to be teaching you while we go on one more search for the nest before the ice comes. Now then, what did you want to tell me?"

Hiccup sighed again and said "I found the Night Fury dad."

Stoick's eyes widened and he said "You did?"

Hiccup nodded and said "Yeah, you were right by the way. It didn't survive the fall. And even if it did, it would never have been able to fly again. The left tail fin was ripped off and I couldn't find it anywhere."

Stoick frowned as he heard the tone of voice his son used and said "What's the matter son?"

Hiccup flinched and said "I honestly don't know dad. I was prepared to kill it if it was still alive when I found it, but once I saw the body, I couldn't help but think that I had did that to it."

Stoick frowned some more before he walked over to his son and put a hand on his shoulder and said "You'll get over it I'm sure. Remember, they are nothing but beasts. Now, I have to go now, but promise me you will train hard and do everything Gobber tells you all right?"

Hiccup nodded and said "I promise."

Stoick nodded and placed an axe in his son's hands and said "You'll be needing this tomorrow. Take care son."

Hiccup nodded again and Stoick exited the house. As the door closed, Hiccup thought 'I am in so much trouble.'

Scene Change: Dragon Arena The Next Morning

As the gate to the arena opened, the teens walked in looking around in awe while Gobber walked behind them with Hiccup by his side. Hiccup merely looked around remembering the times when it had just been him and Gobber testing his inventions against the dragons the Vikings kept to train against.

Besides Gobber who had a hook for his prosthetic, Hiccup was the only one who looked like he was actually going to go to battle. He had his boa launcher slung behind his left shoulder, his collapsible shield strapped to his right arm, and the axe his father gave him in a belt loop that he had found in the black smith shop.

"All right guys, this is it. No fear." Astrid said as she led the group of teenagers.

"I hope I get some serious burns." Tuffnut said looking at the doors.

Ruffnut nodded and said "I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder, or lower back."

Astrid rolled her eyes and said "Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it."

Hiccup could probably collect the sarcasm he heard in that last sentence in a couple of buckets. Shaking his head he said "You guys don't know what your talking about. As soon as one of those doors opens, and the dragons come out, you're going to be doing your best to stay out of their way."

The teens turned around and their eyes widened as they noticed Hiccup for the first time as Gobber chuckled knowing it was probably true. Well except for maybe Astrid. If anyone had a chance of catching up with Hiccup's experience, it'd be her.

"Oh great! What's he doing here?" Tuffnut asked drawing agreement from the rest of the teens.

"He's here to learn how to do more than just delay a dragon for others to capture. And I would pay attention to him if I were you. If he says to do something, you should probably do it. It might end up keeping you from losing a limb." Gobber said as he began walking to the doors of the cages.

"Yeah right." Snoutlout said. Hiccup merely shook his head and walked to stand at the side of the group. Once there, he flicked his right arm causing his shield to slide into its locked position.

Gobber smirked at the looks on the other teen's faces when they saw it before he said "Hiccup, hand me your boa launcher. You guys won't be using them today."

Hiccup shrugged and unslung the launcher and tossed it over to Gobber who caught the device before putting it down next to the first door.

Gobber than began his introduction to his course and said "Today you all are going to learn how to fight dragons. The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."

"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so, does that disqualify him?" Snoutlout said earning snickers from the other teens as an unidentifiable emotion flickered across Hiccup's face for a moment.

Gobber ignored the comment and continued as he began walking past the doors. "Now then, behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight. The Deadly Natter,"

Fishlegs began talking in RPG mode beside Hiccup "Speed Eight, Armor, Sixteen."

"The Hideous Zibbleback,"

"Plus Eleven Stealth, Times two,"

"The Monstrous Nightmare,"

"Firepower Fifteen,"

"The Terrible Terror,"

"Attack Eight, Venom Twelve,"

"Well you stop THAT!" Gobber shouted at Fishlegs causing said teen to eep and nod. "Thank you. And…the Gronckle!"

Fishlegs leaned towards Hiccup and whispered "Jaw Strength, Eight."

Hiccup rolled his eyes and thought 'Why did I have to stand by the one kid who thought everything is some kind of game?"

As he was thinking this, the rest of the teens noticed Gobber placing his hand on the lever to let said dragon out.

Their eyes widened and Snoutlout said "Wait, you're letting it out now? Aren't you going to teach us first?"

Hiccup laughed and thought 'You guys don't know Gobber that well do you?"

Gobber smirked and said "I'm more of a on the job kind of teacher." He then pushed down the lever and as soon as the bar was out of the way, the Gronckle rammed the doors and came flying at the teens who all screamed and scattered except for Hiccup who used the agility that his smaller frame gave him to throw himself under the dragon in a summersault placing him behind it.

As he backed away from the dragon that began going after the others, he prepared himself to be entertained and thought 'Lets see how you guys handle this.'

Gobber had somehow gotten out of the arena without them all noticing and began his lecture. "Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need?"

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs asked causing Gobber and Hiccup to roll their eyes.

"A shield!" Astrid called out,

Gobber nodded and said "Shield! Go!"

The teens began scrambling around for the shields that were spread out around the area as Gobber continued "The most important piece of equipment is your shield! If you must make a choice between a sword and a shield, take the shield! Now then, how many shots does a Gronckle have?"

"Five?" Snoutlout asked.

"Six!" Astrid called out.

"Right! Six! That's one for each of ya."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut in the meantime had both grabbed the same shield. As he listened to what they were saying, Hiccup sighed and shook his head when Ruffnut bashed the shield on her brother right when the Gronckle blasted it out of their hands.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you're out." Gobber said as the twins tried to figure out what happened.

"Those shields are good for another thing: noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim. For example, Hiccup if you'd please."

Hiccup nodded before bringing his free hand to his mouth and started blasting out a long high pitch whistle. The Gronckle immediately went cross eyed and began swaying around in the air like it was drunk. Once Hiccup stopped for air though, the Gronckle spun around and glared at him.

Hiccup's eyes widened as the dragon rushed towards him. Taking off at a sprint with the dragon right behind him, Hiccup shouted to Gobber as he zigzagged keeping the Gronckle from lining up for a shot "Hey Gobber, this wouldn't happen to be that one I helped capture last night would it?"

Gobber smirked and said "Why yes, I believe it is. How'd you know?"

Hiccup shot him a glare and shouted "You knew he would come after me once I did that didn't you!"

Gobber shrugged and said "Maybe."

Hiccup sighed before shaking his head and bolted straight for Snoutlout who had been laughing at his predicament. He stopped laughing though when Hiccup shot past him and the Gronckle launched a fireball that hit his shield and threw the boy back a few feet.

"Snoutlout, you're out. Make sure you are always aware of your surroundings." Hiccup could hear the amusement in Gobber's voice but didn't say anything as he quickly rolled to the side. The Gronckle apparently decided to chase Hiccup later and went after Fishlegs who was in front of it and didn't seem to be able to move out of the way fast enough.

The Gronckle fired again and Fishlegs screamed barely getting the shield up in time. Meanwhile, Hiccup had reached Astrid. Positioning himself so the two were back to back he said "Can you whistle?"

Astrid shot him a look like he was crazy giving him his answer.

Pulling out his axe, he said "Okay, when he comes, we split up and head to opposite sides. While we're doing that, bang on your shield for a little bit and then I'll do the same. We do that and not only will the Gronckle not be able to aim properly, it'll really mess up its focus. Make sure you don't stay in just one spot though."

Astrid nodded since it was a good plan. The Gronckle by that time had spotted Hiccup again and its eyes narrowed as it launched itself at them. As it launched a fireball hoping to get the two at once, Hiccup shouted "Now!" and the two took off to the side of the arena they were facing while banging their axes on their shields in intervals.

As they did, the Gronckle began swaying trying to locate the two teens who were constantly moving around their area. Whenever it thought it had a good shot, it would fire a fire ball only for it to go wide. After the sixth shot, a boa shot out from outside the arena entrance and wrapped around the Gronckle causing it to hit the ground with a thud. Everyone looked over to see Gobber with Hiccup's launcher open and empty.

Shutting the case, Gobber walked over to Hiccup and handed him the empty case and said "Well done Hiccup and Astrid. That was good teamwork. I hope the rest of you learned something from these two. We're done for the day. But before you leave, let me give you one more piece of advice. When facing a dragon, never hesitate, because they always go for the kill. Always."

'So why didn't you?' Hiccup thought as he looked at the cut remains of the boa that had brought down the Night Fury. Looking in the direction that the Night Fury had taken off, Hiccup came to a decision and began walking.


	3. The Dragon BookFighting The Natter

3. The Dragon Book/Fighting The Natter

Hiccup had been walking in the direction the Night Fury had taken off for about thirty minutes before stopping at the lip of a small pit canyon that had a lake in it. Looking down into it, he didn't see the Fury and was about to go around it before something caught his eye. Kneeling down to get a better look at what was at his feet, Hiccup saw what looked like black scales on the ground.

Picking one up and turning it in his hands, Hiccup studied the scale and thought 'It must have stopped here before it kept going.'

A black blur shot flashed in front of Hiccup causing him to fall back in surprise as the Night Fury appeared. Hiccup watched as it attempted to fly numerous times trying to get out of the canyon. After a while, the Fury slammed into the ground near the lake and let out a low moan that Hiccup heard anyway. A fish jumping out of the water caught its attention. Standing up, the dragon went to the lake and tried to catch a fish but apparently failed when it came back up empty. The dragon walked a short distance away and lay down in a dejected manner.

Seeing this, Hiccup frowned and thought 'I've really made its life miserable haven't I?' Sighing, Hiccup took out his sketchbook and began drawing. When he drew the tail, he paused before drawing it without the left fin.

Hiccup placed his pencil down as he looked back at the dragon. However, he wasn't careful where he put it and it rolled down into the canyon making a good deal of noise on its way down. Hiccup lightly cursed as it fell before stiffening when the Fury's head perked up at the sound and looked at where it had fallen before looking up. The two made eye contact and Hiccup felt the feeling of a connection of some kind from before.

Now that Hiccup wasn't scared out of his mind, he could feel that the connection felt like he could feel some kind of foreign emotion from the Fury. Blinking in confusion, Hiccup shook its head at the thought breaking the link. He noticed the Night Fury shaking its head a little as well and wondered if it had experienced the same thing that he did. But if it did, how come none of the other Vikings talked about such a thing happening to them? There must have been plenty of times they made eye contact with the dragons they were fighting. And for that matter, why didn't Hiccup 'connect' with that Gronckle earlier today? It had been looking right at him and the two had locked gazes when it had rushed him and Astrid for a moment but nothing had happened.

Shaking his head again, Hiccup frowned before standing up and heading back to the village.

That night, a storm was making its way to the island as the dragon trainees and Gobber were around a table in the mess hall talking as Hiccup walked over to them.

"Well done for your first day in the ring. Now then, can you guys tell me what you did wrong?" Gobber said.

"You mean besides all of them except Astrid screaming like little girls when the Gronckle came out?" Hiccup asked as he sat down at the end of the table across from Gobber and shot the trainees a look that said "I told you so."

Said teens glared at him while Gobber and to Hiccup's surprise Astrid chuckled and Gobber said "Glad you could join us Hiccup. Why don't you tell them what you think they did wrong and could do better."

Hiccup shrugged and said "Well for starters, like I said, they panicked when the Gronckle came out. They need to learn how to stay as calm as possible like me and Astrid when in a fight. By the way Astrid, nice summersault, but you need to work a little on your balance when you come out of them. (Astrid nodded at this while Hiccup continued.) Then when they were going for the shields the twins fought over one shield while there were four other shields there. That allowed the Gronckle to get them while they were distracted. They should have grabbed a shield based on how close it was to them not what was on the front of the shield. (The twins scowled but Hiccup ignored them as Gobber gestured for him to continue.) Next was Snoutlout who stayed in one spot most of the time and was paying more attention to me than the dragon which is a big no no when fighting dragons. You need to keep moving while maintaining a sense of awareness of what's happening around you. Fishlegs did the same thing and was barely able to get his shield up in time when the dragon focused on him. As for me, I rolled under the Gronckle at the beginning when it would have been better if I went to the side like Astrid did."

Gobber nodded and said "Good. The rest of you remember what he just said. You must always be aware of your surroundings when it comes to fighting dragons." Picking up a book that was on the table next to him, he continued "I want you all to have a look at this. It's the dragon book. Anything and Everything that we know about dragons is in this book."

A flash of lighting flashed outside of the open doors to the hall as it began to rain. Gobber looked out and placed the book on the table before he said "No attacks tonight. Make sure you study that."

As he walked away, he got incredulous looks from the teens as Ruffnut said "You want us to read?"

"While we're still alive?" Tuffnut said in a disbelieving voice.

"Why read about something when you can kill it?" Snoutlout asked making Hiccup and Astrid roll their eyes.

"Oh, I read about this one dragon that shoots boiling water at its victims. And then there's this other one" Fishlegs started before Ruffnut said "Yeah, I was going to read about that, but now,"

He stood up and the others followed him leaving only Astrid and Hiccup at the table. Hiccup shook his head and said "Those guys are going to wind up dead if they don't take this more seriously."

Astrid nodded before standing up.

"You're not going to read it?" Hiccup asked as he watched her.

"Already read it twice. I'm going to go sharpen my ax. It's been getting a little dull lately." Astrid said as she pushed the book towards him.

"Oh, all to myself I guess." Hiccup said in a low tone as Astrid walked away. Shaking his head free of thoughts about always being the outcast, Hiccup turned the book around and opened the cover and began reading. Each entry had a drawing of the dragon and a summary of it. Seeing the stats on the side of the page, Hiccup found out why Fishlegs had been talking the way he was earlier that day. As he read the information out loud, Hiccup became amazed at all of the various types of dragons out there. His father and Gobber had only told him about the kinds of dragons that they had captured for the dragon arena. Each entry had a kill on sight order. As he read, some of the entries made him shudder, especially the one for the Green Death. He prayed to Odin that he would never run across one of THOSE. At the end, Hiccup came across the entry for Night Furies. The page was almost completely blank. It didn't even have a drawing showing what one of them looked like.

"Night Fury. Size unknown, speed unknown. This dragon is the unholy spawn of lightning. It never misses its shot and can't be fought. You're only chance, hide and pray it doesn't find you."

Hiccup frowned at the entry. It was the only one with a flee on sight order besides the Green Death. And it seemed that what little was there was almost purely speculation. The only thing that seemed actually true was the fact about it not missing when it took a shot. And that bit about your only chance being to hide was just ridiculous to him. He had come face to face with one twice and survived so that was obviously wrong. As he thought about the lack of information in the book, Hiccup took out his sketch book and opened it to his latest entry before dropping it onto the dragon book.

The sketched Night Fury seemed to stare at him as he continued thinking about everything that has happened so far. Outside, the rain began pouring down in earnest as the rest of the village bunkered down for the night.

Scene Change: Next Day In The Dragon Arena

Gobber had somehow by himself created a maze of wooden walls inside the arena last night. As the trainees looked down at the maze in surprise and awe from the top of the pit, Hiccup shook his head and turned to Gobber and said "I swear by Odin Gobber, one of these days I WILL get you to tell me how you do that."

Said veteran simply chuckled and said "By all means, keep trying Hiccup." Getting a relatively serious look, he said "Today we will be working on evasion with the Deadly Natter. Every dragon has a blind spot. It will be your job to find it and use it to not get hurt if it finds you. Oh and make sure you don't get hit by its quills. They have a bit of a nasty paralytic poison in them."

The trainees all paled while Hiccup unconsciously rubbed his right shoulder. Hidden underneath the sleeve of his shirt was a small scar where one said needle had nicked him when he had been trained on how to dodge a dragon's attacks. The village elder had had to actually cut into his shoulder with a heated knife to draw the poison out. Fortunately the Natter does use a paralytic kind of poison instead of lethal but it still hurt like hell for it to be drawn out that way. It was one of the reasons why Hiccup was a left hand instead of right. He had actually been ambidextrous before but the procedure made it so that his right arm wasn't as steady as his left.

Five minutes later the trainees were in front of the maze with Gobber at the Natter's door. Hiccup heard the door open and the bird like screech from the parrot dragon telling him that it was particularly eager for a good hunt. Flicking his arm to open his shield and pulling out his ax, Hiccup took a deep breath before he dashed into the maze with Astrid right beside him as the others hesitantly followed. The group split up with the twins going one way while Snoutlout stuck with Astrid. Hiccup and Fishlegs ended up going solo.

Gobber had once again somehow gotten to the outside of the arena faster than anyone else should be able to and was shouting out advice to the rookie trainees while Hiccup used everything he had been taught before to stay out of the Natter's sight. He was not looking forward to facing those needles again.

About ten minutes in, Hiccup heard the Natter shoot out a stream of fire and Gobber say "Blind spot yes, deaf spot no." Hiccup shook his head as he had a good idea what Gobber was talking about before he suddenly stiffened as he turned a corner. The Natter was on top of a wall down the corridor and was staring at him. The dragon's eyes narrowed before he gave a squawk and launched its tail forward shooting its quills out.

Hiccup's body reacted on pure reflex as brought his shield up to block the quills and brought his left hand to his mouth. He was somehow able to blow out a whistle with the ax still in his hand. The quills bounced off of his shield as the Natter fell of the wall unable to keep its balance and landed on the other side. Hiccup shot off through the maze doing his best to avoid going where he thought the Natter had landed.

After a few minutes he leaned against the wall getting his heart rate under control and muttered "That was a close one."

A pst sound caught his attention and he looked over an intersection to see Astrid and Snoutlout with Astrid looking around another corner. Hiccup looked both ways across the intersection before he dashed over towards them staying low.

Once he got there, he said "Any sight of it?"

Astrid shook her head and said "No." before looking back at him and frowned.

Hiccup rose an eyebrow and said "What?"

Astrid cocked her head and said "Why do you look so nervous? You were a lot calmer yesterday."

Hiccup flinched and rubbed his right shoulder as he said "Lets just say that I haven't had many pleasant experiences when it comes to Natters."

Understanding showed in Astrid's eyes before the three heard a squawk from around the corner. Astrid looked back around before withdrawing her head again. Putting her finger to her lips, she told them to be quiet before looking around again. After a moment she rolled passed the intersection and motioned for the others.

Snoutlout rolled without any problems leaving Hiccup by himself. He looked around the corner and waited for the dragon to look the other way before he rolled forward as well. Only to have the Natter look at him in mid roll and screech out before charging. Hiccup's eyes widened and he shouted "Get moving!" The other two took off with him right on their heels before they split up again at a T-joint.

Hiccup was running past another intersection and kept his senses peeled before he heard a ton of squawking and the walls beginning to topple. All of a sudden he heard a shout and turned just in time to see Astrid jumping down from one of the walls into him. Hiccup barely had time to brace himself and kept the two from landing in a heap on the arena floor.

As Astrid panted they heard "Oh, young love on the battlefield."

"She could do better."

The two looked over to where Tuffnut and Ruffnut were snickering at them. Hiccup and Astrid blushed before Astrid stomped over to them ready to beat the crap out of them. Before she could though, the Natter appeared on the wall she jumped off and launched itself at her.

"Astrid look out!" Hiccup called out causing Astrid to spin around and backhand it with her shield arm. The shield broke apart as it smashed across the Natter's jaw. The Natter whimpered as it took off back to its cage while the other three trainees looked at Astrid in surprise.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side Astrid." Hiccup said as he looked at the remains of the shield that was still strapped to her arm. Astrid smirked before turning towards the twins and began walking towards them again causing them to start shaking in their boots.


	4. Breaking The Barriers

4. Breaking The Barriers

The trainees were in front of the maze waiting for Gobber to close the Natter's door. A task which was easier than most days due to the fact that the Natter currently thought Astrid was actually a fierce dragon hidden in human skin. The twins were currently leaning on each other with at least one black eye each and plenty of bruises as well.

Gobber came back from the doors and walked over them and said "Not bad class. You all could use a little more work but we can come back to that on another day. Well, I think we've done enough for the day. Oh Ruffnut, Tuffnut, make sure you see the elder about those shiners of yours. Although it's strange, normally Natters don't leave those kinds of marks. Just what were you two doing in there? It almost looks like you made a stupid comment about Astrid."

The rest of the trainees snickered as said twins glared at Gobber. As everyone began walking out of the arena, Hiccup took off at a run ahead of them reaching the end of the bridge before the others were even half way across.

"Where's he going?" Snoutlout asked not sounding like he was actually interested in the answer.

"Maybe he's going to skin that Night Fury he killed." Ruffnut said earning snickers from everyone else besides Astrid who merely narrowed her eyes in thought for a moment before shrugging.

Hiccup ran towards one of the storage areas used to hold fish and picked out a relatively large one before heading to his house. Once there he dropped off his shield, launcher, and ax keeping his dagger on him since it was basically an unwritten rule that you would almost always need some kind of blade when you went out in the forest to do anything besides go for a walk.

Exiting the house from the back, Hiccup took off at a run into the forest.

Scene Change: Canyon Lip

Hiccup looked into the canyon trying to find the Night Fury. Frowning when he didn't immediately see it, Hiccup looked for the safest path into the canyon. Spotting an area he could climb down with relative ease, he began walking.

Once he was at the end of the small corridor to the canyon, he looked around again before walking out holding the fish in front of him. As he walked close to a large boulder, the Night Fury moved from the shadows on top drawing Hiccup's attention as it climbed down.

Hiccup swallowed as the dragon snorted at him and positioned itself in front of the boy. It sniffed at the fish and seemed to let its guard down before it cocked its head to the side and sniffed again. The transition was instant as it dropped lower into a pouncing position and began growling. Hiccup looked confused for a moment before he sensed feelings of unease and the need to be cautious. Remembering that he still had his knife on him he instantly knew why.

'I guess it can smell the metal.' Hiccup thought as slowly opened a side of his vest revealing the blade on his belt. The Fury growled again as Hiccup slowly reached for the blade. Holding it in his left hand, he then turned slightly and threw the blade about ten feet away from the two where it dug itself into the soft ground halfway to the hilt.

Again, the change was instant as the Fury rose back into a more natural position and made its way towards Hiccup looking like a dog or cat going to its owner for a treat. As it came closer, Hiccup took a calming deep breath before holding the fish out for it.

As the dragon opened its mouth when it was close enough, Hiccup noticed that the gums had slits in them but no teeth.

"Hm, that's odd, I could have sworn you would have-"

Hiccup wasn't able to finish his sentence because right at that moment, teeth suddenly popped up through the slits in the gums with a shinking noise an instant before the Fury snatched the fish out of Hiccup's hand in a flash nearly taking off one of his fingers.

The dragon tossed the fish into the air and caught it as it raised its body into the air and chewed before swallowing. Landing back on all fours, the dragon swallowed again as Hiccup said "-teeth."

The dragon then walked closer and started sniffing the boy. Now that the dragon was practically touching him, Hiccup felt a sense of curiosity and what he could only describe as hunger. Frowning, Hiccup raised his hand causing the dragon to tense up before looking at him curiously.

Hiccup slowly backed up and pointed towards his thrown knife then to the lake mentally picturing him stabbing a fish and trying to send the image to the dragon hoping it would work while maintaining eye contact.

The dragon cocked its head before growling to itself. It then seemed to sigh before backing up a good distance from Hiccup.

'Well at least its giving me the benefit of the doubt.' Hiccup thought as retrieved the knife and walked over to the edge of the lake. Once there, he took off his outer clothes and waited at the shore for a fish to jump out. The Night Fury watched in curiosity as Hiccup stood completely still as he held the knife in a throwing position. Ten minutes later, a fish jumped and Hiccup's knife flashed in the sunlight as he threw it. The knife hit the fish and it stayed on the surface when it landed.

Hiccup nodded to himself as the dragon cocked its head. Hiccup then walked into the lake and waded over to where the fish was floating. Once he had grabbed it and had made it back to the shore, Hiccup took out the knife before throwing it back to where it had been before and placed the fish on the shore before grabbing his clothes and backing away.

The dragon walked over to the fish and snatched it up as Hiccup began putting his clothes back on. The dragon then looked at Hiccup and back to the lake before walking over to Hiccup who frowned wondering if it was still hungry.

That was clearly not the case when the dragon started dry heaving like a cat having a hairball and part of the last fish came back up. The dragon placed the piece of fish at Hiccup's feet and backed away leaving Hiccup confused. The dragon then looked him in the eye and Hiccup saw an image of him eating the fish segment in his mind.

Hiccup rose an eyebrow before shivering as he realized what the dragon wanted him to do. Sighing in defeat, Hiccup picked up the fish and took a bite trying not to think about where the fish just came from and hurl. Deciding not to linger on what it tasted like, Hiccup swallowed as soon as it was safe and shivered again.

Offering the rest of it back to the dragon, it cocked its head before it took it back, this time being more careful in avoiding Hiccup's fingers. As it swallowed the fish, Hiccup hesitantly rose his hand over the dragon's head and lowered it slowly. The dragon noticed and growled again as Hiccup sensed the feeling of being cautious again.

Frowning, Hiccup tried to calm it down by sending a mental image of the two of them laying down side by side as they looked at the lake. The dragon hesitated before it shook its head and began walking away. Once it was about a hundred feet away from him, it opened its mouth and begin spewing a small amount of fire burning the grass. Walking around in a circle with the fire still going, the dragon burned a circle in the ground before laying down on the embers. The dragon rested its head on its front legs and looked at Hiccup for a moment before closing its eyes.

Hiccup looked at it and thought 'So it uses its fire for more than just blasting things. It must be like most reptiles. But instead of just going to sleep where the sun is shining, they produce extra heat as well to keep them warm.'

Hiccup walked over cautiously and laid down on his back next to it. The dragon opened its eye and shot Hiccup a glare before wrapping its tail around itself with the fin raised blocking its view of the boy.

Hiccup rose an eyebrow and chuckled as he said "The old, I can't see you, you can't see me approach eh?"

The dragon's tail fin lowered and the dragon shot Hiccup an annoyed look like it could understand Hiccup which Hiccup thought was actually probably possible all things considered.

The dragon then snorted and stood up and walked around the lake before hanging itself by its tail like a bat with its wings wrapped around its body hiding its head under the branch of a dead tree that was up against the canyon wall.

Hiccup sighed before closing his eyes again. He didn't have anywhere to go and it was obvious that the Night Fury wasn't going to eat him. It would also help the dragon become more comfortable with him if it got used to his presence and he was willing to wait. After all, Berk wasn't built in a day.

The sun was low in the sky leaving the sky a more orange tint than before when the dragon opened its wings and looked around. Spotting the boy now sitting with his back to him across the lake, the dragon seemed to sigh and dropped down before walking over curious why he was still there.

Hiccup meanwhile was drawing with a stick in his left hand as he held up his head in his right. Feeling a sense of curiosity behind him, he looked over his shoulder and saw the dragon walk over to him and look over his shoulder.

The dragon studied the picture for a moment as Hiccup added the final touches to the drawing of the Night Fury before it walked off. Hiccup shrugged to himself before hearing a cracking sound drawing his attention to small tree that the Fury snapped a long branch from and held in its mouth as it walked back over to him.

The dragon than began dragging the point in the ground around Hiccup. Hiccup watched as the dragon drew trying to figure out what it was drawing. The dragon made a final dot in a circle before stepping back and dropping the branch before looking at Hiccup.

Hiccup stood up and looked at the drawing that surrounded him wondering what the dragon had drew. Unable to figure out what it was, Hiccup turned to the Dragon and shrugged trying to send through their link his confusion.

The Dragon cocked its head before understanding shown in his eyes. Hiccup suddenly saw a picture of the island with clouds over it. Only thing was he seemed to be above those clouds. Hiccup's eyes widened as the image disappeared leaving only the drawing which looked exactly like the picture only flat looking instead of real life.

Hiccup took a step planning on looking at the picture from the edge before his foot hit one of the lines. The Fury growled catching Hiccup's attention as he sensed a flash of annoyance from the Fury. Hiccup looked down at the line that his foot was on then back at the dragon who was still growling. Raising his foot, Hiccup noticed the dragon instantly shift back to a more relaxed position.

'I guess I would be pretty mad too if someone walked through one of my pictures.' Hiccup thought as he carefully placed his foot down on the other side of the line. As Hiccup carefully made his way through the picture, he never noticed how he seemed to be dancing as he navigated the swirls and lines. As he did, the dragon watched for a moment before seeming to make a decision and moved over to where Hiccup would come out of the picture and rose up on its hind legs. Once Hiccup was in front of it with his back turned, the Fury gently let out a breath that ruffled the boys hair.

Hiccup stiffened a bit when he was suddenly brought out of his semi trance state by the warm breeze on the back of his head and turned to see the dragon behind him. The two stared at each other before Hiccup rose a hand and closed his eyes sending feelings of trust through their link.

The Fury growled lightly for a moment before it closed its eyes as well and lightly nudged Hiccup's hand and left it's head against it. As it did, both felt an odd tingling sensation run through their bodies. Hiccup smiled as the two opened their eyes again and said "Now was that so bad?"

The Fury looked into his eyes before shaking his head from something and walked away again. Hiccup smiled again and thought 'Well, it's a start.'

Walking back to his dagger, he put it back into his belt and began walking to the canyon exit. Once there he turned around seeing the dragon watching him and said "See you tomorrow Toothless."

The dragon cocked its head at the name before it swung its tail in a waving motion. Hiccup smiled again and began climbing out of the canyon. As he did, he noticed that he could sense Toothless' feelings just a little bit farther away than before.

That night, Gobber and the Trainees were cooking their dinners on one of the lookout towers. All of them except for Hiccup had huge pieces of chicken roasting on spits that were leaning up against the fire. Hiccup instead had a fish only a little bit smaller than the one he had brought to feed toothless.

"And then it snapped its jaws around my arm and bit my hand right off. And I could see it in its eyes, I was delicious! Must have told its other friends because not a month later another one comes and bites off my foot." Gobber said to the trainees who were sitting in a circle around the fire telling how he lost his hand and foot.

Snoutlout growled out as he took a bite out of his rather large chicken leg. "Grr, that just makes me so angry. Just you watch! I'll cut off the leg of every dragon I ever fight! I'll avenge you're beautiful hand and your beautiful foot too."

Gobber shook his head and took a bite out of his full chicken and said "Uh-uh. What you really want to go after is a dragon's wings and its tail. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon, is a dead dragon."

Hiccup looked down as he took more measurements and thought 'That may be true, but I plan on fixing that tonight.'

Gobber took another bite out of his chicken as he said "Good work today in the ring."

Hiccup walked back over closing his sketch book and took a seat as he picked his fish up and took a bite. Swallowing, he said "Yeah, for a bunch of rookies. The twins kept arguing even with the dragon right in front of them while Snoutlout let his ego get the best of him. Fishlegs was the only one of you guys who actually did anything right and even he had problems. The only one who didn't seem to have problems was Astrid. Although truth be told I didn't do so good the last time either."

As he spoke, Hiccup rubbed his right shoulder while the rest of the trainees besides Fishlegs glared at him. Astrid merely rose an eyebrow before asking "Thanks. Just out of curiosity, what were you doing just now Hiccup?"

Hiccup shrugged and said "Getting measurements to see how much clearance I have for putting in one of those launchers I used when I shot down the Night Fury." Thankfully for him no one noticed the regret that flashed across his face as he said that last part.

"Oh here he goes again. All hail Hiccup! The great Night Fury slayer!" Snoutlout said making mocking praise motions.

Hiccup frowned and said "Well at least I can actually back up my claims and know what I'm doing. All of you besides Astrid are either trying to prove something in that ring or wet your pants when the dragons come out. I said it before and I'll say it again, you guys need to start taking this seriously."

"Hiccup's right you know. Fighting dragons is serious business. Anyways, in a couple of days we'll be back in that ring and you guys can start working on the big buys. We'll be starting on the Hideous Zippleback and eventually working our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare."

"It is so my destiny to fight that thing. Look at this." Ruffnut said showing a mark on his left arm that looked like the head of said dragon.

"Whoa, your mom let you get a tattoo?" Fishlegs asked as he looked at it.

"It's not a tattoo, it's a birth mark." Ruffnut said.

"Please, I've been with you for life, and I've never seen that mark before." Tuffnut said as Hiccup sighed and left the platform as Astrid watched him in curiosity.

Hiccup walked over to the blacksmith shop and began gathering materials. If what he had planned worked, his friend would be back in the air where he belonged in no time.

Next Day: Canyon

"Toothless!" Hiccup called as he entered the canyon with a big basket on his back held in place by straps. Toothless opened his eyes from where he had been sleeping in the tree and watched as Hiccup set the basket down near the lake shore.

"Breakfast!" Hiccup said causing the Fury to walk over and sniff the basket.

Hiccup put his foot on the basket and tipped it over causing all of the fish to tumble out.

"Okay, that was gross." Hiccup said before he watched Toothless begin eating.

"I didn't know what you liked so I brought a little of everything, trout, salmon, Icelandic cod, and even a full smoked eel."

Toothless' eyes widened when he both heard and saw the last option and screeched before jumping back from the eel.

Hiccup looked at him in worry and said "What is it boy?"

Toothless looked at him and Hiccup saw flashes of a cave that was full of dragons with red light coming out of a hole in the cave floor and the head of something that must be truly huge in real life as well as a sense of extreme fear that made Hiccup wonder how his heart was still beating.

Shaking his head to get the images out of the front of his head he said "Ok, no more eels. Got it."

Picking up the eel, he said "I don't know why you reacted like that or what it has to do with an eel but I promise I won't bring these anymore. Although truth be told I don't really like eels either."

Flinging the eel as close to the entrance as possible, Hiccup said "There, I'll take it away when I leave."

Toothless walked back over to the fish and began eating again. As he did, Hiccup walked over to the Fury's tail and unrolled the device that he had made last night. Unfurling the man made tail fin, Hiccup laid it on the ground next to the tail and compared the two fins. Grinning at the sight of the fins being the same size, Hiccup unbuckled the leather loops on the fin and began attaching it.

Toothless suddenly felt the weight shift on his tail to something that was more familiar to him from before he got shot down. He got a thinking position as he shifted his tail around before his eyes widened and then narrowed as he got a focused look on his face. Hiccup meanwhile had been sitting on Toothless' tail as he opened the fin fully looking at it.

"Hm, that should do, now how do I make this actually work with his other fin?" Hiccup thought as he put a hand to his chin in a thinking manor before blinking as he just realized what he was feeling from his friend. His eyes widened and he tried to get off before Toothless flapped his wings but was too slow.

Toothless meanwhile was prepping himself for flight before he flapped his wings and shot towards the far wall as he tried to get higher. Hiccup looked over his back and saw the wall coming. Eyes widening, he looked back and opened the fin to the same position as the normal fin causing them to shoot upwards in the air.

As the island fell below them, Hiccup, did his best to hold in his scream as he focused on keeping them from falling by working the fin. Toothless meanwhile was simply focusing on leaving the island now that he could fly properly again. He wanted to go back to the nest and make sure his nest mates were all right. No telling what could have happened there while he was gone.

Hiccup frowned as he sensed the emotions from his friend and thought 'Sorry Toothless, but you can't go back now. Not as the way you are now at least.'

Hiccup then lifted the man made fin to the right causing the dragon to turn back towards the island. As he turned against his will, Toothless' eyes widened before he sensed a calming emotion coming to him through the link. Eyes widening even further, Toothless looked back over his shoulder and saw Hiccup riding on his tail holding the new fin.

Toothless' jaw actually dropped as Hiccup shouted over the wind "Take us back to the canyon Toothless, I can't keep us in the air like this for long!"

Toothless meanwhile was trying to figure out he hadn't notice the human on his tail for so long before focusing back on where he was going as he focused on finding the canyon. He was going to have a talk with that boy as soon as he landed even if he couldn't speak the boy's language.

As Toothless flew over the Canyon, he received a mental image of the two landing in the lake. Understanding that Hiccup wanted to soften the landing as much as possible, he glided lower and breached the surface of the water and allowed it to stop his motion. He then looked back at Hiccup who was still on his tail and flicked it sending the boy flying into the water away from him.

Hiccup came up sputtering and said "What was that for?"

Toothless stomped over towards him and glared at the kid while he sent a mental picture of Hiccup falling through the sky and then landing at a unnatural angle on the ground. He then sent an image of the brown fin he had seen as well as a sense of confusion clearly asking about it.

Hiccup flinched before he said "Ok, that was stupid of me not telling you what I was doing but I wasn't planning on you taking off like that! I was just seeing if it would fit and was the same size as your other fin. I only made the fin last night and I don't even have a way to make it work properly. You're just lucky that I was actually on your tail when you took off or else you would have slammed into that wall."

Toothless glared at him for another moment before sighing and began sloshing towards the lake shore. Hiccup sighed as well before following. Once the two were on the lake, Toothless shook himself like a wet dog before walking over to the fish basket and laid down. Hiccup took off his outer clothes and laid them out to dry before he walked over to his friend.

Placing the basket on its bottom, he sat down against it and closed his eyes as he said "I got to admit, as terrifying as that was it was just as fun."

Toothless snorted and Hiccup heard 'Child, you are crazy.'

Hiccup's eyes shot open and he looked at Toothless in shock. Toothless' eyes widened as well as he realized what just happened through their link. The two had only sent mental images and feelings through the link because that was the only thing they could feel and see at first. It never crossed their minds that they could send words through the link as well.

"No way." Hiccup breathed out as the two stared at each other.


	5. Answers Given

5. Answers Given

Author's Notes: Viruses are real pains in the ass aren't they? I got this up as soon as possible. Well try to work on more tomorrow.

Hiccup and Toothless stared at each other before Toothless shook his head.

'This link of ours keeps getting more and more useful. First emotions, then images, and now we can even send words over it.'

Hiccup nodded his head trying to get over the fact that Toothless could apparently speak English.

Toothless' eyes narrowed when he heard that thought and sent 'Of course I can Hiccup. I'm a dragon, not some giant bird. We've been able to understand what you humans say for centuries at least.'

Hiccup frowned and said "Too bad it doesn't go both ways. We could finally find out why you guys keep attacking us and stealing our food."

Toothless looked down and sighed before sending 'We don't do it by choice Hiccup.'

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked in confusion.

Toothless closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and looked Hiccup right in the eyes.

'Seventy years ago, our nest was invaded by a monster. It gave us a choice. We bring it food and attack your village every once in a while and it doesn't eat us all and then completely level your village.'

Hiccup frowned and said "But why would it want you to attack our village?"

Toothless shrugged and sent 'No clue, it never said and we never asked. Might have to do with that huge scar on its jaw and that tooth its missing.'

"Well why don't you just gang up on it? There's just one of it and hundreds of you guys right?"

Toothless looked at Hiccup for a minute before Hiccup saw an enormous scratch drawing of the creature on a beach as it blew out a huge stream of fire at a large mass of dragons completely burning them.

'Some of the dragons tried when it first came, but as you can see, it didn't work out so well.'

"Oh." Hiccup said as he frowned.

Toothless sighed as he stood up and walked towards the lake and began drinking out of it.

'That thing may look like a dragon, but nothing could be further from the truth. We dragons usually only eat fish but that monster demands meat most of the time. Then there's the fact that it seems to hate humans. We dragons didn't really mind you guys when you first showed up but that thing seems to hold a grudge against your village in particular. Why we have no idea, although I personally think that one of your founders might have fought against it.'

Hiccup rubbed his forehead and said "Ah man, this is heavy. We've always thought you guys were just beasts who were attacking us because it was easier than hunting in the forest. Turns out you were actually keeping us safe. Well, safer."

Toothless nodded and sent 'That's why I hope no one ever finds our nest. If any human ever found it, that thing would kill them as soon as it found out about them and then probably go after the village itself just for the hell of it.'

Hiccup frowned and said "But why do so many of you guys seem to want to kill us?'

Toothless frowned as well and said 'You must be talking about those who have truly lost themselves. We used to look at killing humans like killing a dragon. But ever since that monster invaded our nest, things have changed. Some of us still avoid killing humans as much as possible. It's why I've always aimed for the towers of your village instead of at the actual people when we attacked. But others have seen this as a chance to let their more violent instincts take over.'

Hiccup frowned as well before shaking his head and said "I've got to tell the others about this. Maybe we could help you guys get rid of that thing."

Toothless snorted and sent 'Not likely. I hadn't been born when it first came but I heard that it took out over half of our nest in one sweep. That image I sent you was a picture that one of the older dragons made to show us younger ones what had happened to warn us against doing anything stupid. If we couldn't take that thing down, what do you think you Vikings can do? Besides, we've been attacking your village so long, what makes you think anyone would actually believe you?'

Hiccup frowned and said "There's got to be something we can do."

Toothless shook his head and said 'It would take another one of those things to get rid of it and personally I don't think it would do us any good even if it did work. We'd just have a new master.'

Hiccup frowned even more before shaking his head and said "There's got to be a way. But for right now, we have more important things to worry about. Like making it so that you can actually fly again. The problem is that the fin will always be closed because of the wind going against it unless something keeps it open like a rope or something. But the fin needs to be able to move to keep you in the air. The only way I can see that happening is if I was there to actually change the position. And I don't think I want to be hanging on to your tail the next time."

Toothless nodded and sent 'I don't want you there either. Too easy for you to fall off.'

Hiccup nodded and said "Yeah. Although I shouldn't have any problems if I made a saddle and placed it in front of your wings."

Toothless frowned and let out a small growl at the thought of being ridden like a horse but then sighed and sent 'I may not like it, but you're right.'

Hiccup nodded before he put the cover on the fish basket and placed it on his back.

"Well, I better get back." Hiccup said as he started walking before he noticed the eel. Picking it up, he said "What's with you when it comes to eels anyway?"

Toothless shuddered and said 'Two things. One, those are extremely poisonous to almost all of us dragons. And two, it smells just like that monster.'

"Ah." Hiccup said as he began walking out of the canyon. "See you later Toothless."

'Goodbye Hiccup.'

As Hiccup walked through the woods on his way back to the village, he thought about what Toothless had said. He was sure that there was a way to get rid of the monster that he recognized as a Green Death. The only question was how? As Hiccup entered the village, he shook his head of those thoughts. Until he could get Toothless back in the air and keep him up there, such thoughts were a moot point.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard his name being called. Turning to the source, he saw Astrid walking towards him.

"Oh, hey there Astrid, what can I do for you?" Hiccup asked as he turned towards her.

"Well for starters you can tell me where you've been. I've been looking all over for you since breakfast. What's with the eel and basket?"

Hiccup looked up at the position of the sun and found that it was just past noon. Looking back down, he shrugged and said "Just walking around the woods. As for the basket and eel, I needed the basket to hold some rocks for some training so that way I can carry heavier stuff. The eel was going to be my lunch if I didn't get back to the village by lunchtime. So what did you need?"

Astrid looked at Hiccup trying to figure out if she should actually believe his explanations or not but decided not to bother and to ask what she had wanted. "I was wondering if you had any advice for dealing with the Zippleback that we'll be facing in training in two days."

Hiccup frowned in thought as he considered what he knew about the two headed dragon and its tactics.

"Well for starters, if you're going to fight one, you need to know which head is spewing the gas. It's usually the left head when you're facing it although I have seen one or two blow it out from the right so make sure you know that. One way you can tell is that the sparking head has a piece of flint in its bill that is sometimes used if it can't create a spark the normal way. Either way, if you get a boa around both of its mouths, it's a lot easier to take down. Oh, and make sure that you don't let it wrap one of its necks around you. They do that sometimes to keep a target still to blow it up."

Astrid paled the slightest bit when she heard the last bit but nodded and said "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Hiccup nodded and said "Well, I'm going to go get some lunch. I may have brought the eel with me but truth be told, they're not exactly my favorite things to eat in the world. See you around Astrid."

"Yeah, sure." Astrid said and watched as Hiccup walked off to the main hall.

Scene Change: Berk Blacksmith Shop

That night, Hiccup was working with Gobber looking over plans to build a boa launcher on top of one the watchtowers.

As they looked over the different schematic ideas that Hiccup had come up with when he first made the larger scale launcher, he said "Hey Gobber?"

"Hm?"

"Say, hypothetically, you had a boat of some kind that had more than one sail and required the sails to be in certain positions at all times that changed according to wind and position. If you were the only one in the boat, how would you go about making it so that you could control them without having to go to each one manually?"

Gobber glanced over at Hiccup in confusion and said "Now where did this come from?"

Hiccup shrugged and said "Nowhere really, the idea just popped up in my head and I can't seem to get it out until I figure out the answer."

"I see." Gobber mused as he rolled up the plan he had been looking at and said "This one is to big to place on the tower, maybe we can trim it down a little." Putting the scroll away, he walked over to the anvil and leaned against it before folding his arms and said "But to answer your question, I would use a pulley system much like what we usually use on our single sail ships. Just have them all connected at one point or more."

Hiccup nodded as he looked down at the design he had before picking it up and walked over to Gobber and said "This looks like the best one we can put in."

"I see." Gobber said as he looked over the design before yawning and said "Well, I'm off to bed. We can finish this some other time. Don't stay up too long Hiccup."

Hiccup nodded as Gobber exited the shop. Once the door was closed, Hiccup went over to the desk and quickly rolled up the other plans and put them away before getting out an empty sketch sheet and began drawing.

An hour later, Hiccup had what he believed to be the solution to Toothless' flight problem. The final saddle drawing he was looking at used a pulley system that was controlled by the left stirrup. It would be slightly difficult to build but definitely the best thing he could come up with.

Nodding to himself as he rolled the plans up, Hiccup yawned and thought 'I'll have to build it tomorrow night.'

As he locked up the blacksmith shop with the plan under his arm, Hiccup's thoughts drifted back to the picture that Toothless had shown him through their link.

Frowning he thought 'I wonder why there weren't any Night Furies in the picture. I saw at least one of each of the main kinds in that picture except for them. I know Toothless is the only Fury that ever attacks us now but surely there was at least one of them around at that time.'

Hiccup shrugged as he reached his house. It was a valid question but one that Toothless could hopefully answer when he saw him in the morning.


	6. DemolitionAndDragonsWithSplitP ersonalit...

6. Demolition And Dragons With Split Personality

'Toothless, can you hear me?'

Toothless jerked awake from his perch in the dead tree as Hiccup's 'voice' made its presence known in his mind. Looking around the clearing, he frowned and sent "Hiccup? Where are you, I can't see you anywhere.'

'I'm about a quarter of a mile out from the canyon you're in. I've been testing how far we can hear each other ever since I left the village. This is the first time you've responded.'

'Well that's interesting. I wouldn't have thought that the link we now shared could reach that far.' Toothless sent.

'I was expecting only about a hundred feet or so myself.' Hiccup sent. Toothless could almost feel the boy cocking his head as he went silent for a moment before the dragon heard 'Hey Toothless? Why weren't there any Night Furies in that drawing you showed me yesterday? There was at least one of each dragon that has attacked Bern before besides you but no Furies.'

Toothless closed his eyes as he sighed and sent 'It's because none were there seventy years ago. I'm not even supposed to be here myself since we Furies usually live much further to the south. But I got separated from the others during a storm when I was about three years old around twenty five years ago. I ended up falling out of the sky from exhaustion trying to catch up to them and the currents took me to the dragon nest in Hellhiem's Gate.'

There was a long moment of silence before a subdued 'I see.' drifted over the link. No more was said for about five minutes and Toothless thought the conversation was over before he heard 'I worked on the artificial tail fin problem last night. I think I've got a rig that will work alright with it.'

Images began pushing their way into Toothless' mind and he tried to make sense of the drawings that his human friend was sending him.

'If it works right, we should be able to have you back in the air in a few days after I build it.' Hiccup sent two minutes after he sent the images.

'I'll take your word for it.' Toothless sent back as he continued to try and make heads or tails of why the left stirrup seemed to be so complicated. 'I mean really, what's with that piece of bent metal on it anyway?' He asked himself not realizing that he had sent it to Hiccup before he heard Hiccups voice ring through the canyon as he answered him.

"It's so that way every little twitch my left leg makes doesn't send us crashing into the ocean or a cliff wall. And by the way, it's called a spring." Toothless shrugged his front shoulders at the boy before he dropped down from his tree and walked around the small lake to meet him by the entrance to the canyon. As Hiccup walked past the last boulder, he set the basket of fish that he had brought down and pulled out a knotted cord of leather. Holding it up, he said "Before you start eating, I need to get some measurements real quick so that way I can size everything properly."

Toothless narrowed his eyes at him in annoyance but he sighed and said 'Fine, just make it quick.'

"Was planning to." Hiccup said as he loosened his grip on the cord and it unrolled to reveal that with the eleven knots in it, it was exactly one foot long. Walking over to Toothless' side, he pulled his sketch book out and set it down on the space between his wings before he took out his charcoal pencil and said "Right, give me two minutes tops and I'll have everything I need."

True to his word, Hiccup took his measurements with a speed that spoke of practiced ease and a minute and fifty five seconds later he was writing down the measurement for the distance between the artificial fin and Toothless' left wing. Snapping the sketch book shut, he said "Thanks, I've got the design down, but I needed measurements before I actually make anything."

Toothless simply nodded before he knocked over the basket holding the fish and practically shoved his head in as he began eating. Shaking his head, Hiccup walked ten feet away before he plopped himself down and took the rolled up plan from last night out of his vest. Flipping open his scrap book to the first set of measurements he recorded, he began copying them onto the plan mentally going over what materials he would need and how much.

Ten minutes later, Hiccup was leaning against Toothless as the two just laid on the ground with the sun warming them. Having a stray thought, Hiccup said "Hey Toothless?" Getting a questioning grunt from the dragon he was leaning against, Hiccup said "I just thought of something. How big are you compared to most Night Furies? You said you were around twenty eight years old but I don't know if that means you're still a teenager or an old man compared to others and if you're going to be growing some more then I'll have to make proper adjustments to the rig."

'I'm what you would consider a young adult, so I would probably only grow at most another foot in length in my lifetime. But that would be over another twenty years at least. We Night Furies are built more along speed than power so we don't get very big compared to other dragons."

"Ah. Never mind then. The rig should be able to easily compensate that kind of growth without any serious kind of modification."

The two slipped back into comfortable silence before it was Toothless' turn to have a question cross his mind. Turning his head to see his friend properly, he sent 'Hey Hiccup, you're currently doing that so called dragon training right?'

"Yeah." Hiccup said slowly wondering at how Toothless would take the fact that he was being taught how to kill dragons. He assumed that a stray thought of his had told Toothless that just as he had known about Toothless wondering about the spring on the left stirrup of the rig.

He really shouldn't have bothered though since Toothless had known ever since Hiccup had failed to be able to kill him even when he was defenseless that the boy wouldn't harm a dragon if he could help it. It was all the other Vikings they had to worry about. Pushing that little dark thought out of his mind, Toothless sent 'So what are you working on right now?'

Briefly wondering why he wasn't now extra crispy, Hiccup shrugged and said "Gobber's planning on us working on the Hideous Zippleback after the weekend." He blinked as he heard 'Damn twin headed punks.' Turning his own head, he looked at Toothless with confusion and said "I'm sorry?"

Snorting, Toothless sent 'Let's just say that I know one particular Zippleback that does not know the meaning of restraint when it plays those damn pranks of hers. And the rest of them are not much better.'

"Okaaay." Hiccup said before he stretched and said "Well anyway, knowing Gobber, he's probably going to have us go at it with buckets of water and nothing else."

'If you get a chance, hit it right between where the two necks come together.' Toothless said before Hiccup 'felt' Toothless grin as he continued 'You'll find the results rather…amusing.'

Blinking again, Hiccup said "Okay, if you say so. Is there some kind of pressure point there or something?"

'Something like that.' Toothless made what could only be described as an evil cackling sound and Hiccup felt a shiver run down his spine as the dragon said 'Barring that though, just go for the first joint right behind the heads. Depending on how you hit it that pressure point will either knock the head out like a candle in the wind, give them the mother of all headaches, or if you scratch it just right, leave them in total la la land.'

"Good to know." Hiccup said before he stood up and stretched. Glancing over to the entrance to the canyon, he frowned as he saw the boulders that blocked the path that he was forced to climb around as well as the places where the rock walls of the canyon itself came together in bottlenecks. Pointing at one such bottleneck, he said "Think your fireballs can blast a path through that? If so, I can move the boulders out of the way and you could probably jump your way out of here."

Toothless cocked his head at the entrance before he stood up. Stretching like a cat before he turned to face it fully, he said 'I doubt I could do much to it. Only one way to find out though. Better get behind me.' Not needing to be told twice, Hiccup jumped back and Toothless opened his mouth as he began putting the gas inside of him under pressure. Hiccup then heard the telltale shriek as a blue fireball launched itself out of Toothless' mouth and slammed into the cliff side. There was a brief explosion and Hiccup ducked as rock chips flew through the air. Looking up when he heard them stop falling, he looked over at the wall and grinned as he said "Well it will certainly take us a while, but I think we can do it."

Where the left side of the bottom bottleneck was, a circular hole about one foot in diameter was blasted out of the rock with the surrounding rock glowing a dull red that was quickly fading away. Cracks were in the wall leading away from the hole with the largest one an impressive two and a half feet long. Walking around Toothless and looking at the cliff wall with a critical eye, he said "Alright, this I can definitely work with. If we hit it in just the right spots, we should be able to collapse the wall a bit and make bigger openings. Moving the rubble and boulders is going to be a pain though if we don't do this just right the first time."

'Not to mention you could wind up trapped in here with me.' Toothless sent back.

Hiccup shrugged and said "Won't be a problem if we attach a rope to one of the trees on the top of the rim as a precaution. Now let me see…" He trailed off as he walked over to the wall and his mind began going into overhaul as he saw potential fracture points in the rock and began calculating where the best places to hit them would be. Nodding to himself when he found what he thought to be the best solution, he turned around a little and said "I'm going to head back to the village to get what we need. When I'm out, I want you to start blasting here, here, and here until you've widened the gap by three feet all the way through this juncture point. After that, we'll see what we need to do next."

Toothless eyed the three spots that Hiccup had tapped and nodded showing he understood. Hiccup gave a nod of his own before he went back to the basket that he had brought with him and put it on his back as he said "I'll be back in about an hour, do you need me to get you anything?"

'Nope, I'm good.'

Hiccup gave a final nod before he ran over to the entrance and began climbing up the slope at a fairly impressive speed before he reached the top and took off at an even faster pace. Toothless gave him twenty seconds to get clear before he opened his mouth again and blasted the first spot Hiccup had pointed at.

An hour later, Toothless snorted in satisfaction as he watched the last piece of rock at the back of the ten foot wide bottleneck groan before it fell with a resounding crash. There was still a bit of a roof over the spot but the hole in the bottleneck was big enough for him to squeeze through if he did the same to the other side.

He looked to his right as he heard a whistle drift through the air. Looking up at the canyon rim, he saw Hiccup looking at the destruction he had caused with an appreciative look as he said "Nice job Toothless. Keep that up and we'll have you out of here in no time." He turned around and dug into the rather large basket that was beside him that had a few handles of whatever was in there sticking out and pulled out a large coil of rope. Tying it securely to the tree next to him, he then tied it to the basket. He then dug out a pair of leather gloves from the basket before he secured the top. Putting the rope between his hands, he nudged the basket over the edge and slowly lowered the basket down to the canyon ground.

Once it was on the ground, Toothless watched Hiccup take a few deep breaths before he wrapped the rope around his waist and turned around as he placed one foot on the edge of the canyon and leaned backward. The boy then began walking down the canyon wall letting the rope slide slowly through his gloved hands and within a minute was next to the basket. Once he had terra firma under his legs again, Hiccup leaned over and panted a little as he sent 'That was harder than I thought it would be.'

'Are you going to be alright?' Toothless sent back in concern.

Hiccup waved the concern off and sent 'I'll be fine. I'm just going to have to get used to climbing the wall like that if we accidentally mess this up.' Untying the basket, he bent down and picked it up and walked over to where Toothless was standing. Getting a proper look at the entrance to the canyon, he nodded and said "Looks like you've made pretty good progress. Now we just have to clear out the rubble and then start on the other side." Putting the basket down, he flipped open the lid and began pulling items out as he muttered under his breath "Lets see, pickaxe, three foot crowbar, tripod pulley, eight pound mallet, fifty foot hoisting rope for the pulley, hammer and chisel. Well, that should be everything we need."

Toothless blinked at the weird tripod that Hiccup had pulled out. Each leg was folded twice at two foot intervals and looked like it would stand at five feet tall when unfolded and set into the ground with the ends sharpened into large points that looked like they had to be driven into the ground at a depth of a foot and two pulleys that were side by side attached to the top in a way that would allow them to swivel around in a full circle as well as sideways at different angles. Seeing the look his friend sent at the contraption, Hiccup grinned and said "Like it? We usually use slightly bigger versions of these for hauling materials up from the docks to the top level that our meeting hall is on. Gobber was the one who came up with their design after he heard a bunch of the others complaining about having to haul a bunch of barrels of ale up to the hall one time. This one was actually the final project Gobber had me do after he taught me how to blacksmith."

'It is an unusual device.' Toothless said and Hiccup shrugged before he turned to look at the rubble at the bottom of the entrance considering which tool he should use first. Coming to a decision to start with the big boy of the group, he picked up the eight pound mallet as well as the collapsed tripod pulley and walked over to a spot that was twenty feet from the entrance on its right side and began setting up the tripod. Once the tripod was standing, he grabbed the now empty basket and used it as a step stool and began pounding on the flat metal plate that was attached over the two pulleys by a thick piece of metal that fit into a square hole that was removed when the pulleys were being used. Two minutes later the tripod was properly secured and he hopped off the basket and grabbed the hoisting rope and threaded it through the two pulleys. Next he carefully climbed the pile of rubble and tied it to the top rock. Once he made sure it was secured, he scrabbled off the pile before he picked up the rope at the other end and said "Mind giving me a hand with this?" Toothless walked over and grabbed the very end of the rope and the two began backing up pulling the rope taut.

Time Skip: Sunset

Hiccup wiped the sweat from his forehead as beside him Toothless gave a big heave and rolled a boulder up against the cluster that they had made thirty feet to the left of the entrance. Looking at the now much wider entrance, he grinned at the site of the first two bottlenecks completely removed and all of the boulders that had been in the passage to that point had been moved out of the way. The end result was that Toothless could now easily travel halfway up to the third bottleneck before he had to back his way out.

"Well, I think that's enough for today, don't you?"

'Yup.' Toothless said as he went to the lake and began making an honest attempt of drinking it dry. Hiccup watched in amusement as he observed his dragon friend drinking from the lake for a good five minutes. Shaking his head as the dragon finally brought his head back up with water dribbling down, he said "Thirsty much?"

The dragon looked over his shoulder at him and said 'What do you think?' He then walked a few feet away and burned a circle into the ground before he collapsed heavily as he said 'I don't think I'm going to have any problems sleeping tonight.'

Hiccup chuckled as he turned and began making his way up the entrance and said "Yeah, no kidding. I better head back before I fall asleep myself. Goodnight Toothless.'

'Night Hiccup.'

Scene Change: Canyon Rim Twenty Hours Later

"So how does it feel to finally be up here?" Hiccup asked as he and Toothless stared down into the canyon that had been his prison for a week. It had taken them two days, but Toothless could now get out of the canyon with relative ease. They'd have to figure out what to do with all the large rocks they had beside the entrance later. For now, he was just glad his friend wasn't trapped down there just because he couldn't fly under his own power.

'Absolutely fantastic.' Toothless said as he stretched a little.

Hiccup grinned and said "So feel like exploring for a few hours?"

Toothless grinned and said 'Do you really have to ask?'

Scene Change: Dragon Training Ring The Next Day

"Today is about Team Work!" The door the trainees were facing exploded outwards on their hinges and green smoke began billowing out filling the arena as Gobber continued his lecture. "Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky, one head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job, is to know which is which."

Hiccup rolled his eyes as he heard Fishlegs began muttering about all of the dragon's 'tools of the trade' and looked over his shoulder at Astrid who had immediately picked him when Gobber had told them they would be working with partners. Astrid rolled her own eyes and both of them shook their heads at the bigger boy. Their faces quickly got serious though as the gas around them thickened and their vision of anything below the rim of the ring's stone walls dropped down to next to nothing.

As the two kept their backs to each other and focused on listening for the dragon, both of them rolled their eyes again as Snoutlout began talking big before they heard him shout and then a splashing sound. Astrid made a rude noise as they heard that it was just Ruffnut and Fishlegs. Hiccup snorted himself at Toughnut's statement of their butts getting big and that they thought they were dragons. As they heard the sound of a body hitting the floor and more water splashing, Astrid muttered "Idiots."

"Definitely idiots." Hiccup muttered in agreement before both tensed as they heard Tuffnut screaming followed by Snoutlout giving out a rather girly shriek. Hiccup couldn't keep his lips from twitching at that. The gas surrounding them cleared and the two saw Fishlegs douse one of the heads only for it to spew gas at him sending him running as well. The Zippleback then turned its focus towards Hiccup and Astrid who were the only two with water still in their buckets and began walking towards them with its tail going from just dragging behind it as it turned to twitching just the slightest bit. Hiccup saw this and immediately knew what to expect from past experience.

"Jump!" Hiccup said and Astrid thankfully did as told not questioning him. The two both jumped away and managed to avoid the Zippleback's tail that swept through the area their feet had been just a moment before. The Zippleback looked disappointed for a moment before it seemed to focus more on Hiccup. Astrid meanwhile was cursing to herself since she had lost all but a little bit of water in her bucket when she had jumped. Hiccup still had half a bucket though and got ready to throw the water as the dragon kept walking closer towards him.

Hiccup waited until he was sure the dragon was in range. Just as the gas head opened its mouth, he flung the water at the other head as hard as he could. Everyone's jaws dropped as the gas head shot in front of it and so got wet instead. The head grinned at the two teens in front of it before it spewed gas in their direction almost completely covering them in it before quickly pulling back. Seeing the 'lighter' head shooting forward as fast as the gas head had retreated, Hiccup paled and shouted "Get clear!"

The two dove in opposite directions and just barely managed to get clear of the gas before it exploded into a fireball. As he got clear, Hiccup did a turning right handstand and pushed off. Facing his opponent when he landed, he ignored the slight twinge of pain coming from his hand after scraping against the stone and shot back towards the Zippleback. Everyone's eyes widened as the adrenaline coursing through the boy's veins gave him a burst of speed that no other Viking would have any hope of matching due to their rather large frames. The Zippleback itself paused in surprise as the thought of a young unarmed human planning to attack it was unthinkable. The two second pause that came from this ended up being its downfall.

With how close the dragon was it took Hiccup only a couple of seconds to get right next to the lighter head. He slammed his fist into its neck right at the spot Toothless had told him to. The head in turn screamed in pain as it tried to get away from the source of said pain. The gas head seemed to take offense to this and snapped towards Hiccup with its beak wide open ready to take a chunk out of the insolent child who dared to hurt it. Still hyperaware due to adrenalin, Hiccup saw the head coming and fell backwards to avoid it, bicycle kicking it in the process. The head was thrown upwards screaming in pain as well as Hiccup landed on the stone floor. Quickly rolling backwards into a crouch, Hiccup took advantage of the situation and rushed over to where the two necks joined and slammed a punch there. Immediately getting the hell out of dodge, he dove to his right and did two rolls before he looked back at the results of the last punch ready to dive again if he needed to. The result though had and everyone else blinking in surprise. The Zippleback's two necks went ramrod straight forcing their heads to slam into each other and the dragon fell to the floor unconscious.

There was silence in the arena for a moment before Gobber shouted "Well done Hiccup!" Walking up to Hiccup and slapping him on his back hard enough to send him stumbling a couple of steps, Gobber continued "You see that class? That is how you take down a dragon bare handed! Excellent use of pressure points Hiccup. And that falling kick was absolutely superb! Though I have to ask, how did you know to hit it in between the necks? I don't think anyone's ever done that before."

Hiccup gave a little shrug of his shoulders suddenly feeling tired as the adrenaline stopped coursing through his veins. Fighting the urge to yawn a little he said "To be honest, I wasn't sure it would work. I just figured there must be a pressure point there since there is a pressure point at the base of the neck for pretty much everything that breaths."

"Hm, very true." Gobber nodded his agreement before he turned to all of the other trainees who were all still staring at Hiccup in shock and said "That's it for today class, be back here same time tomorrow."

Hiccup chuckled nervously at everybody still staring at him and said "Well, since we're done, I've got a few things I need to do. See you tomorrow." And with that as his parting, he spun around and ran out of the arena leaving most of the other trainees to talk about how cool that just was and asking themselves if they had ever known Hiccup could be such an 'Awesome Dragon Butt Kicking Viking.' Astrid though walked over to the ramp leading down into the ring and watched as Hiccup made his way across the bridge leading to the village wondering if she could get him to teach her that handstand trick he did.

Fin

Gobber: Next time on the Engineer

'Child, you are absolutely crazy.'

Hiccup looked up from the strap that he had just buckled and said "What's wrong with my idea?"

'Oh no, there's nothing wrong with your idea itself, theoretically at least. It's the problem with you actually thinking you can work the rig while we're flying with your eyes closed that's got me worried.'

Author's Note: I have decided that my resolution this year is to do my absolute best to have one chapter done per week, two at the extreme max. Next on the list, after two years of silence, Oh What Shadow Clones Can Do is finally getting a new chapter: Baring any complications, Call of Duty Operation Stingray Part Four will be out by next Sunday.

Posted 1/6/13


	7. Take Off

7. Take Off

Story Start: Hidden Cove, Afternoon Of Zippleback Class

Hiccup sat on the ground staring at the rig he had made for Toothless while he waited for said dragon who was currently hunting at a river that had a better selection of fish than the lake in the canyon. If he had did it right, and considering the exact measurements he had used they should be, he and Toothless should be able to work on memorizing the proper positions the left stirrup would need to be in in order to properly mimic Toothless' intact tail fin.

As he waited for his friend to come, Hiccup couldn't help but see the rig in front of him break apart and hover in the air in front of him as statistics on each piece shimmered in front of him. He absentmindedly rose his right hand and made a sweeping motion with it and the image spun around showing him the other side.

'Do you always see things that way?'

Hiccup jumped at the voice in his head and the image disappeared revealing the once again complete rig. Looking over his shoulder at Toothless who was making his way down, he nodded and said "Most of the time. Usually it's when I'm in the planning stages of building something new." Doing a quick reverse somersault he smoothly transitioned from sitting to standing as he looked over at Toothless and said "Ready to get started?"

Toothless sighed before Hiccup felt him mentally fortify himself for the task ahead and said 'As ready as I'll ever be.'

Toothless had to give his friend this, the boy was efficient. The rig was put on him with such speed that Toothless swore the boy had done this before. Hiccup had grinned before he said "I swear I never did. But it helps when you invented the tool you're using." Who can argue with that? Within two minutes, Hiccup had the rig in place and hooked to the prosthetic tail fin.

Stepping back while clapping his hands together in an up and down fashion of finality, Hiccup grinned at his work as he said "Perfect fit. Now, let's work out the right positions so that way I can start memorizing them."

Two hours later saw Hiccup sitting on top of Toothless with his eyes closed and his foot flicking into the different positions that his friend called out as he moved his intact fin while said dragon had his head and tail turned so that way he could make sure Hiccup was making the right movements. He was sending that image to Hiccup as well which is what had brought about Hiccup's rather unique, and most likely crazy idea. Unfortunately, as was becoming quite common, Toothless picked up on the thought.

Head snapping up to stare at Hiccup who swayed from the unexpected change of view, Toothless' eyes widened as he sent 'Child, you are absolutely crazy.'

Hiccup's eyes opened and he looked down at Toothless with a frown as he said "What's wrong with my idea?"

'Oh no, there's nothing wrong with your idea itself, theoretically at least. It's the problem with you actually thinking you can work the rig while we're flying with your eyes closed that's got me worried.' Toothless sent at him while a brief picture of Toothless flying under a branch and Hiccup being wrenched out of the saddle by it because he was too high crossed the dragon's mind.

Hiccup winced at the mental image before his eyes grew determined and he sent back a series of images of him leaning forward to the point where dragon and rider might as well have been one with them doing a speed run through the forest and then performing a bunch of aerial maneuvers through the same forest. Looking Toothless, in the eyes with a fierce look in them, he said "We should at least do a test to see if my idea could work."

The two held their locked gazes for ten full minutes, neither willing to back down, until Toothless guardedly thought 'Stubborn as a Groncle this one.' Sighing, he sent 'You're not going to give up on this are you?'

Hiccup grinned as he said "Nope."

Toothless sighed again before he stood up and began making his way to the canyon entrance as he sent 'Then we better get started. Hold on tight.' He gave Hiccup three seconds to lean forward before he shot out of the canyon in a black blur and grinned at the excitement that he could feel almost literally pouring off of his new rider.

Time Skip: The Next Morning

Gobber surprised the class by stopping them as they reached the bridge that led to the dragon arena. Pointing above them at the Mess Hall, he said "No dragons today. Now, get to the Mess Hall, double time!"

Hiccup blinked once in confusion before he traded a quick look with Astrid. The two shrugged before they simultaneously turned and then shot off like one of Hiccup's boa launchers to the Mess Hall. The other rookies stared for a moment before a "Well, get on then!" from Gobber had them struggling to catch up with the two fastest members of the class.

Hiccup was pleasantly surprised to see that Astrid was able to somewhat keep up with him without too much trouble. He certainly wasn't running in a full out sprint at the moment, but it was definitely more than what most of the Vikings in Berk could manage. He chalked it up to the fact that Astrid seemed to be a training nut and put it out of his mind. Looking back as they reached the midway point between their 'level' of Berks tiered system and the next, he laughed at the sight of Fishlegs already wheezing as Gobber continued to berate the rookies for not being fast enough.

Astrid heard him and after glancing at him looked back as well. She frowned before she muttered "I can't believe we are going to have to trust those guys to watch our backs once training is over. Half the time they're goofing off, the other half they're messing up on the simplest things."

Hiccup frowned at the clear dismissal but shrugged as he said "Unfortunately, that's the problem with having a society overly obsessed with brawn and not brain."

Astrid snorted before they finished running up the hill and shot down the street that led to the next ramp. They quickly went up that one and entered the level which mostly held the chieftain's house and the Mess Hall.

They ended up waiting in front of the Mess Hall for a good twenty minutes and Hiccup somehow found himself teaching Astrid how to correctly perform his spinning handstand trick without breaking her wrist the first time she tried to do it. The promise from Astrid to teach him how to properly do a twisting flip after class was a good trade though.

They stopped working on it when the other rookies and Gobber finally reached the mess hall. All four of them were covered in sweat and gasping for air as they all fell to the ground exhausted from the full out run Gobber had put them through. Said Viking barely looked winded as he shook his head and said "What a sorry lot I've been given. Can't even properly run a little sprint. How do you plan on surviving when the dragons are all around you and you have to fight for hours on end?"

The four teenagers could only continue gasping for breath and Gobber gave a sharp "Bah!" as he walked past them shaking his head. Stopping in front of his two best students, he said "I'm glad you two at least have endurance." Turning his head slightly to look directly at Hiccup, he said "I'm going to need your help today Hiccup. After what you did yesterday, I'm thinking we should discuss pressure points a little today."

Hiccup nodded and Gobber walked past the two towards the large double doors that had curiously been closed. The veteran knocked on it five times and the doors began groaning as they were pulled open from the inside. Both Astrid and Hiccup blinked in surprise when they saw that all of the tables were stacked against the walls in order to make room for the rather large obstacle course that was made out of three twelve foot rope climb 'tents', six groups of logs that were suspended at roughly chest height with about a foot's difference between the highest and lowest that were obviously for climbing over, a ten foot balance beam, and finally a set of five stairs that led to a bunch of thin logs that the rookies would have to run across to reach a second set of stairs.

Astrid's jaw drop as she said "How-?"

Hiccup's snort drew her attention as he said "I honestly have no idea. I've known him for most of my life and I still don't know how he does this kind of thing overnight."

That comment brought the memory of Hiccup talking to Gobber about the maze he had apparently made when they covered blind spots with the nadder. She shook it away though as Gobber chuckled and said "And you probably won't for a good twenty years Hiccup."

Hiccup shot an annoyed look at his teacher before he turned back to the obstacle course and said "I think you put too much faith in the others' abilities Gobber. There's no way they can handle this course in any respectable amount of time if they couldn't handle the run up here from the arena."

Gobber looked back at the other teens who were just now tiredly getting back to their feet and he frowned as he said "I'm afraid you're right."

As if to prove his point, as soon as the other four entered the room and saw the obstacle course, they all simultaneously let out a groan which caused Hiccup to chuckle at them. As their gazes locked onto him and narrowed, he grinned and said "Still think that my running ability outmatching my strength is a shame to the Viking cause?"

Snoutlout actually growled as he took a step forward and said "That is it! I have had it with you constantly mocking us you little twerp!" He took five more rapid steps and shot his arm forward with the intent of breaking his cousin's nose, but got the surprise of his life when Hiccup slapped the arm away and then got right into Snoutlout's guard slamming a finger right under both of his shoulders causing both arms to fall limp before he spun around the bigger boy and struck two points in the small of Snoutlout's back. Snoutlout let out a shout of surprise as he suddenly dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

Fishlegs and the twins' jaws dropped at how fast Hiccup had taken out his cousin who was at _least_ two and half times thicker than he was with just four little pokes of his fingers and despite herself, Astrid felt her eyebrows rise at how quickly Hiccup had moved. Her opinion on his fighting ability went up a notch as she thought 'He just took down an opponent twice his size within five seconds. I knew he was good, but not that good.'

Hiccup walked around Snoutlout's limp form and crouched down in front of his head and briefly allowed himself to enjoy the wide eyed and terrified look on his cousin's face who had always tormented him as he wagged a finger and said "Let's get one thing straight here cousin. I criticize, I scold, I chastise, I've even tore someone a new one. But I never, mock!(1) Someday soon, it is going to sink in that this is not just some kind of game like you used to play in, but the real world where a single mistake can cost you your life. I am trying to make it so that way you guys don't make that mistake." Standing up and walking over to stand with Gobber, he said "The paralysis will wear off in a couple of minutes. Use that time to think about what I just said."

Gobber sent a small frown at his former smithing apprentice before he shrugged admitting to himself that while putting Snoutlout on the floor might have been a little overboard, Hiccup had the right to let out a little steam after how the other kids his age had tormented him most of his life. Looking back at the rest of his students, he said "Well, lets get on with the lesson. I had originally planned on beginning with the obstacle course first, but considering how most of you are still tired from our run and Hiccup has just given such an excellent example of the other lesson I had planned, I believe we will begin with pressure points. Hiccup, since you were the one to really discover most of what we know about them, do you mind explaining?"

Hiccup blinked in surprise before he shrugged and said "Sure." Gobber stepped back a couple of steps and Hiccup closed his eyes as he considered how he should approach this. A couple of seconds later, he opened them again and began speaking.

"I discovered pressure points mainly by accident. I had been working on a project in the forge that Gobber had given me when I accidentally knocked my wrist on a piece of equipment. My entire hand had immediately gone completely limp. Afterwards, I had experimented a little and found out that if I hit that spot just the right way, it would happen again, but only in that spot. Through a little more trial and error, as well as very accurate guessing when it comes to some of the more unusual points, I have been able to pin point roughly a hundred of these pressure points, most of which either cause you to lose all control over a certain body part, cause a lot more pain than usual when struck, and one or two that actually gets your adrenaline flowing on command. The last one was admittedly found by accident, but the others are found fairly easy through common sense once you think about it." Looking over at Astrid, he said "Astrid, do you mind giving me a hand for a demonstration real quick?"

Astrid regarded him with a wary look but nodded and walked over to stand once again beside him. Turning to the others, he said "I'm about to hit one of the latter pressure points, which will bring out the fight or flight reflex. Now, I want you to pay special attention to Astrid's eyes." Taking Astrid's right hand into his own, he turned it so that her pinkie finger was on top. Glancing up for a moment, he said "Brace yourself Astrid, this is going to give you a bit of a rush." Looking back down, he quickly struck a point where the wrist met the hand and Astrid gasped as she felt adrenaline suddenly surge throughout her body and her eyes dilated as her fight or flight reflex kicked in and he stepped aside for a moment to show the others the effects as her eyes began rapidly darting around the place. Hiccup counted to ten before he struck the same spot again and Astrid's eyes returned to normal and she sagged as the sudden influx of adrenaline stopped as suddenly as it began causing her to pant a little.

Hiccup let go of her hand and turned to face the others who were looking between Astrid and their own wrists in amazement. Clearing his throat to get their attention, he said "As you have seen before, the effects of hitting a pressure point happen immediately, which can bring about a rather quick end to a fight if you hit them right. Especially if you hit the one that is on the back of the neck just under where the head begins, which leads to instant knock out. Now, these are the main pressure points I have discovered."

Scene Change: Canyon Time: Two Hours Before Sunset

"You ready to give this a try Toothless?" Hiccup asked as he settled himself in the rig on said dragon's back.

'I am, although I must say again that your idea is still crazy.' Toothless said as he slowly spread his wings and hunched down a little in preparation taking flight.

"Noted. But we won't have to worry about actually testing that out today since we're just going to see if I can actually respond to your commands fast enough to maintain flight." Hiccup said as he quickly ran through the different tail fin positions before settling for the one that was used to take flight.

'Which I am extremely grateful for.' Toothless said before he launched himself into the sky and Hiccup let a shout of excitement out as Toothless apparently wanted to get as high up in the air as possible now that he could finally fly again and rapidly began climbing at speeds that caused Hiccup's lips to peel back from the g-force applied on his body.

Finally, after a full minute of rapid accent, Toothless stopped pumping his wings as hard as he could and leveled out. He began to glide and Hiccup sat up even as he automatically set the rig to the right setting. Mentally filing the tidbit that he couldn't see when Toothless flew that fast under 'reasons for closed eye flight', he glance around and gasped when he saw that they were just above the lowest clouds which were in turn so high that Hiccup could actually see the entire island without moving his eyes at all.

Toothless sensed his amazement and sent 'Quite a sight isn't it?'

"It's amazing." Hiccup agreed before he heard a faint rumbling sound and turned his head to the east. His eyes widened as for just a moment, he thought he saw a massive ten mile high thundercloud that spanned across half of the horizon in front of him in the shape of a night fury five miles out. He blinked and the cloud was suddenly not there. Looking down at Toothless, he said "Did you see that?"

'See what?' Toothless asked as he turned his head back to look at his passenger.

Hiccup frowned as he looked back to the east and said "There was this huge thundercloud that looked like you and had to be at least ten miles tall, but when I blinked, it was gone." He gave a loud "Whoa!" as Toothless' body suddenly gave a massive jerk in surprise and nearly sent him flying. Potential plummet to his death avoided, Hiccup finally registered the sheer amount of awe and disbelief that was pouring off his friend. Looking at him in confusion, Hiccup said "Ah, Toothless? Is something wrong?"

Toothless seemed to shake himself as he sent back 'Nothing's wrong, per se, but what you just described is something straight out of Night Fury legend.' Looking back forward, he said 'Legend has it that the original Night Fury was made by a bolt of lightning that was formed during the creation of the thunder god's hammer, Mjolnir. He was said to have been ten miles tall at the shoulder and at least sixty miles long. He was a restless dragon that constantly traveled the world, bringing change anywhere he went.' Turning his head back around to look Hiccup in the eye, he said 'Back when I was with my family, the elder of our group once told me that when he died, our ancestor took the form of a massive thunder storm and continued roaming the earth, and that whoever so much as catches a glimpse of his form was destined to change the world around them. According to legend, in all the centuries Night Furies have flown in the skies of this world, only ten of us have ever laid eyes on such a storm before, and each one has become a legend almost as great as the first Fury himself. For you, a human to have caught sight of it, I can only imagine what you will do in your life.'

Hiccup blinked in shock at the information that apparently what he had just seen was something that almost no one else had other seen before. Then he frowned as he said "But what could I possibly do that could change the world? I mean, I'm just a teenager who likes to invent stuff."

Toothless smirked and said 'But you're also the first Viking to ever ride a dragon. Believe me Hiccup, you will go far one day, and I don't need a sign from the great ancestor to tell me that.'

Hiccup actually felt himself blush as he turned his head away before he coughed and said "Uh, thanks. Shouldn't we be starting the tests though?"

'Very well.' Toothless said before he tilted his wings and began a long right hand turn.

(1) Got to love the Duchess of Deceit


	8. Flying Blind

8. Flying Blind

Story Start: Hidden Cove After Successful First Flight

The sun was just beginning to set as the sound of flapping wings filled the air and a black blur shot out of the sky and into the cove taking a long sweeping turn to bleed off most of its speed before slowing down even further revealing Toothless as he flapped his wings five more times before dropping to the ground. As soon as he hit Terra Firma Hiccup unhooked himself and jumped off heading straight for the artificial tail fin already running a check on the equipment to see how it handled two hours of non-stop flying.

Satisfied with seeing that the rig handled the strain with no problems, he said "Well, I'd say that for a first field test, that went rather well. The rig had no problems and we were able to coordinate quite well in keeping the two fins properly synced with each other."

Toothless nodded as he sent 'Indeed. But the real test will be tomorrow when we see how well we can fly through that cluster of rocks that are just off shore. Not to mention we still have to see if your crazy idea can actually work.'

Hiccup frowned at his friend as he finished undoing the straps keeping the saddle on him as he said "You don't sound that excited about it. I thought we agreed that with how fast your top speed is it would be the best option for us when it came to making sure I could see where we are going."

Toothless snorted as he shook his body out and scratched behind one of his ears even as he sent 'Just because it could be necessary doesn't mean I have to like it.'

"Fair enough." Hiccup said carrying the saddle over to the pile of rocks near the canyon entrance that they had been able to create a small 'cubby hole' in halfway up the pile and placed the equipment in so that way it would be out of the weather. Returning to his friend and unhooking the artificial tail fin, he continued "My main concern though is that we don't end up as flat cakes when we do the test run through the forest afterwards. Going through rocks along the coast is one thing, they are quite easy to see where to fly and where not to. Trees in a forest tend to be a lot harder to avoid with how much cover their branches give."

'Which is why we're doing that test with both our eyes open and at half speed.' Toothless said getting a nod from Hiccup as the dragon walked over to the lake and a minute later expertly snapped a fish out of the air when it had jumped just that little bit too close to the shore.

'He's getting awfully good at that.' Hiccup thought as he placed the artificial tail fin next to the rig inside the cubby hole before moving one of the rocks in front of it to keep water out of the hole if it rained. Making his way back down, he said "I need to start heading back Toothless. I'll be back around an hour after sun rise tomorrow."

Toothless gave a wave of his tail showing that he heard even as his head shot forward into the water and snatched another fish that had gotten too close to the dragon. Hiccup shook his head at the sight before he began the walk back to the village.

Thirty minutes later, Hiccup heard the sound of ax meeting wood and blinked as he pulled himself from his thoughts of what Gobber would have them fighting during the next class. Walking closer to the sound, Hiccup saw Astrid throwing her ax at a tree that had a huge chunk tore out of it before she walked over to the tree and pulled it out before walking back to her original position and threw her ax again.

Walking over to the rather large boulder off to her side to stay out of the way, Hiccup watched her throw the ax a couple of more times before he gave a soft whistle to gain her attention as he said "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to cut down that tree from a distance."

"Just trying to keep my accuracy up." Astrid said before she looked at the ax that was almost always at Hiccup's waist nowadays and said "What about you, are you any good with throwing that?"

Hiccup looked down at his ax and said "This? A little, my dad did show me how to throw it but it's not really my style. Besides, to be honest I'm better at inventing stuff than fighting."

Astrid snorted and said "Well you could have fooled me with how you took out the Hideous Zippleback barehanded."

Hiccup gained a slight blush as he rubbed the back of his head and said "Well yeah, but you can really thank Gobber and Dad for that, since they are the ones who had pushed me so hard when they were training me. Without them, I'd just be a thin little toothpick for the dragons to use once they were finished eating their meals."

Astrid's eyebrow rose showing she wasn't fully convinced it was all those two's doing as she said "Well regardless, in a fight I'd rather have you by my side than any of those delinquents we're learning with. None of the others ever seem to take the things Gobber teaches us seriously."

Hiccup sighed as he walked over to where she was standing and said "Tell me about it." Reaching her spot, he turned to the tree and hooked his left pointer finger under the head of his ax where the metal met it's handle and said "We're in that arena to learn how to not die as we defend our homes from attack by beings who can fly, breath fire, and let's not forget have razor sharp teeth and claws and those four are more interested in being the biggest stud. And yet they constantly mock me for doing the best I can and act like it's my fault that they can't get things done. It just makes me so frustrated!" Hiccup growled at the end as his arm suddenly seemed to blur as he brought his ax out of the loop holding it at his waist even as he flicked his wrist causing it to swing around and off his finger. The ax spun in the air in a half circle before the handle was in his hand even as his arm fully drew back and he threw the ax at the tree hitting it four inches shy of the center of the tree an inch below Astrid's own ax strikes.

He sighed again as he walked to reclaim his ax while Astrid rose an eyebrow at the shot and thought 'A little off center, but still a pretty good throw.' Out loud, she said "I know how you feel, if Snoutlout isn't trying to flirt with me, then Fishlegs is spewing some nonsense about the dragons like they're some kind of character out of a stupid board game. And let's not get started on the twins, sometimes I wonder if it's their life's mission to annoy everyone around them until we snap and fight over who gets to strangle those two."

Hiccup chuckled as he pulled his ax out of the tree and turned around to see Astrid making strangling motions with her hands and wondered which twin she was currently imagining between them. Then he frowned as he said "You know, sometimes I wish it was just you and me Gobber was teaching right now. Things would be so much simpler then. No Snoutlout acting all macho and making excuses when he messes up, no Fishlegs spouting weird dragon stats, no annoying twins harassing us. Just the two of us trying to figure out how Gobber seems to be a magician and learning how to work together and with the others of the village."

"Hm, that would be nice." Astrid said with a small smile imagining how much less stressful that would be before she shook her head and looked up to see what color the sky was. Seeing how it was starting to get dark, she picked up her ax from where she had set it down against her leg while talking with Hiccup and holstered it as she said "We should get back to the village."

Hiccup nodded as he holstered his own ax and the two began walking back home. On the way back, the two talked about what Gobber was probably going to have them do next class before shifting over to the boa and net launchers that the rest of the villagers had placed onto the watch towers under Hiccup's guidance during the previous week. Unknown to the other one, both couldn't help but think that it was a lot more comfortable for them being alone than with the rest of their class.

Time Skip: The Next Morning/Day Two Of Flight Testing Location: Rock Gauntlet Off The Northern Coast of Berk Altitude: 2,000 Feet Above Sea Level

Hiccup glanced over the side of Toothless as the two held their position over the rock gauntlet that was half a mile beneath them. They had already done two test runs through it, one slow run to get their route down, and a faster one at half speed to be sure they could actually make a speed run. Then there was a third test at their current altitude to be sure that the rig could handle the strain of the aerobatic tricks that they were about to use since at least at this height if the rig failed Hiccup would have time to get to the tail fin and bring them down to the ground instead of suddenly slamming into the rocks around them. Thankfully Hiccup had made the rig with his usual efficiency and there weren't any mishaps. So now they were preparing for the final test, seeing if they could properly fly while sharing vision.

"Ready for this Toothless?" Hiccup asked getting into position.

'As ready as I'll ever be. I'm still not comfortable about this though. Sending still images is one thing. Sending real time images on the ground when we're not moving at top speed is another. But this, this is on a completely different level. And a crazy level at that.'

"But still a necessary one. What if we have to move through an area that is filled with smoke in order to rescue someone. I wouldn't be able to see properly because it would do damage to my eyes but if we used the link, I could still help you since it would still be two people looking." Hiccup said.

Toothless sighed and sent 'I'm not trying to make one last argument on this Hiccup. I told you before that the theory is sound. It's just implementing it that has my nerves all jittery. Still, we better get this over with. So hang on tight child, because here, we, GO!'

That was all the warning Hiccup got as a second later Toothless adjusted his wings and began to rapidly descend down to sea level. Hiccup was already laying as flat as he could with his eyes closed by the time Toothless started his dive. Now he allowed himself one deep breath before he allowed himself to let the link take over his sense of sight and saw the sea coming towards him at a speed he almost couldn't comprehend. Hiccup felt a brief flash of fear that he wouldn't be able to respond to Toothless' commands fast enough but that was gently pushed aside by said dragon as he sent calm reassurance across the emotional aspect of their link. It seemed even with his misconceptions, the dragon still believed in Hiccup's abilities which really spoke volumes about their friendship.

But Hiccup didn't have time to dwell on this since they were suddenly ten feet above the water and Toothless was sending him the first command to change the tail fin's position. The next few minutes were nothing but an adrenaline filled blur for Hiccup as the pair blitzed its way through the course without once making a mistake. Rocks were flashing past as they shot around them with inches, sometimes even centimeters to spare yet not once did Hiccup ever truly feel as if they were in danger of crashing.

Then they were suddenly clear of all of the rocks and there was nothing but an open expanse of blue in front of them with the coast of Berk now visible on their left as Toothless settled into a glide and gave Hiccup a mental nudge telling him the test was over. Hiccup slowly withdrew from the link regaining his own sight and opened his eyes even as he let out a laugh full of excitement as he said "That was incredible! A bit terrifying now that I think about it, but incredible!"

Toothless chuckled as he sent 'Indeed. And now we know for sure that your idea will work when needed.'

An hour and a successful tree run test later, Hiccup was leaning his back against Toothless' side as he finished eating one of the five smaller fish that the net that he had set before the tests began caught over a fire that his friend had been kind enough to light for him. In front of Toothless were the remaining, much larger fish that had been caught in the net that said dragon was enjoying.

A chitterling sound drew both of their attention to four Terrible Terrors making their way over. At the sight of them landing and walking towards his fish pile, Toothless moved to stand in front of them with a growl coming out that Hiccup didn't need a mental link with the much larger dragon to understand as a warning to back off.

Three of the four Terrors did stop their approach although the other was apparently braver than the others since it took five more steps closer and began putting the gas inside it under pressure. Hiccup felt a flash of annoyance from his partner before the Terror opened his mouth to fire only to have Toothless shoot a small fireball of his own down the little guy's throat which caused the gas to prematurely ignite and the Terror suddenly expanded like a water skin with way too much water in it before rapidly deflating.

As the now dazed Terror stumbled back to his friends, Hiccup says "Huh, you guys aren't so fireproof on the inside are you?"

'Nope.' Toothless says with a chuckle before going back to his meal. Hiccup chuckles himself before he goes back to his own remaining fish and said "Come over here guys, you can have the rest of mine since I'm not that hungry."

The Terrors stared at him warily for a minute before Toothless snorted and told them something that sent them rushing over and eagerly eating the offered fish. Turning his head to his friend, he asked "What did you tell them?"

Toothless snorted again and said 'I told them that if they don't eat the fish then I would.'

"Ah." Hiccup said before he felt something brush against and then lift his right arm. Looking down, he was surprised to see that one of the Terrors had decided to settle itself against his side with his arm over him and was now for lack of a better word purring. Then the other three Terrors came over from where they had dragged their own fish away from each other and two of them curled up against his legs while the final one settled itself in his lap. Hiccup could only stare at them before he turned confused eyes towards his friend silently asking what's going on. Toothless though just seemed amused at the whole thing and gave the Night Fury version of laughter as he went back to his fish and began eating again.

Hiccup sighed before he idly began scratching the small dragon under his right arm behind its horns and began doing the same in with the dragon in his lap with his left as he said " I wish everyone else in my village could get along with you guys so well."

'It would be nice if they could.' Toothless sent before sighing and continued with 'Unfortunately, until we get rid of that monster in the nest, that will never happen.'

Hiccup sighed again before he sent back 'Too bad you can't just launch a fire ball down its throat like you did a minute ago.'

He felt something shift in his friend at that thought before he heard 'Yes, it's too bad.' Hiccup frowned wondering what the black dragon was thinking before shrugging it off and allowed himself to drift off to sleep, visions of him and Toothless rocketing through the sky filling his dreams.


	9. Building Trust

9. Building Trust

Story Start: Village of Berk

It had been two weeks since Hiccup and Toothless' test runs. The two were now comfortable enough in sharing eyesight via the link to fly during the night without worrying about hitting anything. Their link with each other also grew, allowing them to communicate with each other even with the entire length of the island separating them.

On the dragon training front, Hiccup and Astrid continued to be leagues ahead of their classmates with the two constantly trading first and second places with each other. Hiccup had experience and outside of the box thinking going for him while Astrid had natural talent and extremely good combat instincts on her side. The two began growing closer as they continued to pair up during their lessons and it wasn't unusual now to see the two trading banter with one another during meal times or one of them showing the other some little trick that they knew.

However, it wasn't all a bed of roses. Two nights ago, there had been a dragon raid, and more than a couple of houses were damaged. Thankfully, the boa and net launchers that Hiccup had designed and helped install in the watch towers proved their worth and even with only half their numbers present, the Vikings had killed more dragons in that raid than in any other raid.

After the dragons had fled the scene, Hiccup was congratulated by practically the entire village on a job well done inventing the weapons that had kept the collateral damage a lot lower than it could have been. The village elder actually had to teach Astrid how to properly crack his back after all the slaps it endured had popped several of the vertebrae out of alignment forcing him to walk hunched forward like an elder himself for an hour. Which of course was the source of several jokes that night, not that Hiccup cared, since he had a bigger problem than back and elder jokes on his mind.

Before his first face to face encounter with Toothless, Hiccup would have taken the praise in stride along with the satisfaction of knowing that another invention of his had helped his village. But after getting the other side of the story from his dragon friend, the engineer now felt sick from being torn between two different points of view. On one hand, Berk was his home, and currently the only way to keep it safe from dragons was to use force. But most dragons so outclassed humans that the only way to do so most times was to fight with the intent to kill. However, the Vikings weren't the only side in this war, and the dragons had their own reasons for attacking the Vikings, chief among them the fact that if they don't put a big enough effort into their raids, the Green Death that had taken up residence in their nest would not only kill them, it'd completely wipe Berk off the map, not just the village, but possibly the entire island as well if it felt like it. There was actually precedence on that front, Atlantis being the most well-known case of such.

Hence Hiccup's sick feeling as he surveyed the carnage that his inventions had brought. He was jostled out of his degrading thoughts as Toothless sent over the link 'This isn't your fault Hiccup.'

Hiccup blinked at the sheer impossibility of a dragon telling him that the deaths of other dragons brought by his inventions were not his fault and he sent back 'Of course it's my fault! If I hadn't helped the others put those launchers on the towers, a lot less dragons would have died! How can you even stand talking with me, I just helped the village take down your comrades!'

'No Hiccup, you helped your village defend itself. If you want to blame someone for the fact that dragon and man is pitted against each other, blame that devil spawned Green Death. That THING is the source of all of this fighting, and only with its death can we put an end to this senseless conflict.' Toothless retorted.

Hiccup sighed and sent 'Even if I believe you Toothless, how can we kill something that big? I mean it took out half your nest when it first came, what chance to we have now with your numbers falling even more in these raids?'

Toothless sent the mental equivalent of a frown over the link before the dragon sent 'On our own, none. However, if we can get dragons and humans to work together, then we just might have a chance.'

'I hate to burst your bubble there Toothless, but the chances of that happening are less than a snowball's chances in a volcano.' Hiccup thought.

'And yet we have managed to do so Rider. We merely need to approach this problem in the proper manner. Start with a small group, and then enlarge the group at a controlled pace. All we need is one person who would be willing to listen to us and go from there.' Toothless calmly sent back.

'But who could we even approach for this?' Hiccup asked before an insane thought crossed his mind and he quietly thought 'Astrid.'

Not quietly enough apparently as Toothless sent the mental image of a cocked head and sent 'The girl who is matching you in training? I thought she lived for fighting dragons.'

Hiccup sent the mental image of a nod down the link and thought 'Think about it, over training, we have helped each other so she will take me seriously, and we've became friends as well so she should at least hear us out. The only other person who I can think of would be Gobber, but he's constantly claiming trolls are real and that they steal everyone's left socks. People are more likely to listen to Astrid than him.'

'Well, you know your people better than me. Either way, the sooner we begin, the sooner we can end this needless war. Regardless of the problem of who to approach, I need to show you the nest soon so you know what we have to work with. And the sooner the better so plan for a long day tomorrow.' Toothless said before Hiccup felt him withdrawing from his mind leaving the teen with his thoughts.

Time Skip: The Next Morning Scene Change: Dragon Training Arena

Hiccup flicked his right arm up catching a spine shot from the Nadder on his shield even as he caught the Terrible Terror that tried to latch onto his nose with the flat of his ax and flicked it away. Behind him Astrid grunted as her shield stopped a fireball launched by the Gronkle and she said "Am I the only one who thinks that just going from fighting just one dragon to three is unfair?"

"Nope, but you know Gobber, fair isn't in his vocabulary." Hiccup said before he tapped Astrid's left heel with his right ankle twice and the two rolled away from each other at an angle to the dragons they were facing before they came up and slammed a finger into pressure points in the dragons' necks that stopped all motor control and the two winged creatures slammed into the ground. The Terror tried its luck with Astrid only to be back handed into its gate. Seeing its bigger companions down, the little dragon decided that discretion was the better part of valor and quickly shot through the small flap that allowed it access leaving the other two dragons to their fate.

"Well done you two, you're dismissed for the day." Gobber said from where he and the other trainees were standing behind the gate leading into the arena. Pulling the gate open, Gobber walked past the two downed dragons and said "Snotlout, Tuffnut, the two of you are up next." Gobber reached the dragon gates and locked the Terror's before he turned around and made his way back to the gate with Hiccup and Astrid following. As they passed the two dragons Hiccup and Astrid struck the same pressure points from before and both dragons began trying to move their limbs. Gobber closed the gate just as the two managed to rise to their feet and the two winged menaces quickly locked onto the two trainees that were in the arena with them and proceeded to waste no time in showing their displeasure.

As Astrid and Hiccup began crossing the bridge leading to the rest of the village, Hiccup glanced over and thought 'Well, might as well get this over with.' Clearing his throat to get his friend's attention, he said "Astrid, if I told you a really big secret, would you be willing to keep it from everyone else until I said it was alright to tell somebody?"

Astrid cocked her head in curiosity and said "So long as it didn't put anyone else in trouble, then yeah, what is it?"

Hiccup shook his head and said "Not here, too public. Besides, this is something that needs to be shown at the same time as it's told." Hiccup's eyes drifted down to stare at the studded skirt that Astrid was wearing and said "We're going to have to do something about your clothes first though since you definitely don't want to be wearing a skirt where we're going. Come on, I've got some spare pants you can use in the smithy, and we need to swing by there anyway."

Hiccup took off at a half speed run leaving Astrid to stare at him in confusion for a moment before she shook her head and shot after him catching up to him in a few strides before the two picked up their pace to the running speed that they were both more familiar with.

As soon as they were in the smithy, Hiccup grabbed the spare pair of pants he kept in his personal space for the times when the pants he was wearing were damaged beyond reasonable repair and tossed them over to Astrid before gesturing over to a closed door and said "If you'll get changed in there, I'll grab what I need from in here."

"Hiccup, why do you want me to wear your pants?" Astrid asked in a calm but dangerous tone of voice. Hiccup looked up from where he was quickly but efficiently sewing leather loops into a premade leather vest as he heard the tone used and turned his head to face his friend and calmly said "Because I have never seen you in anything but skirts and those would not be a good thing to wear where we're going. If you've got a pair of your own though, you're more than welcome to go home and change and then come back here."

His spare pants landing on his desk beside the vest and the smithy door slamming shut was his answer and Hiccup chuckled as he put them away again before he finished putting the last leather loop on the vest and began working on attaching a leather strip onto a buckle. Threading it through the first row of two sets of loops, Hiccup gave his work so far a critical look before nodding and reached for a second set of leather strap and buckle. He had just placed a 'standard' knife in the sheath he had sewn onto the vest when the door to the smithy swung open and he heard Astrid say "Alright, I'm changed. Now are you going to show me what's so important that you can't tell me when we're already alone?"

Hiccup sighed and grabbed the finished vest before he got up from the desk and said "I know you're getting frustrated Astrid, but know that I have a very good reason for going a bit roundabout in this. As soon as I know that this fits you we'll be off, so shoulder guards off if you'll please."

The vest did in fact fit and the two were soon sprinting through the forest. Astrid wasn't happy with leaving her ax and shoulder guards at Hiccup's house but as soon as Hiccup made an offhand comment about worrying about too much weight, she instantly thought of the rope and hooks set that was currently clipped to her vest and immediately reached the conclusion that whatever Hiccup was going to show her involved climbing at some point and instantly dropped the subject. At least she had the knife that Hiccup had thoughtfully included with the vest.

Now though, she was wondering why Hiccup was stopping beside the entrance to a canyon. Hiccup meanwhile took in a deep breath before he turned around and said "Alright Astrid, you're about to see what all this secrecy is about. But before you do, I need you to swear on your father's soul that you will keep a calm head and allow me to explain everything to you before you ask questions and/or freak out. Can you do that for me?"

Astrid jerked back in surprise at the seriousness of the oath that her friend was asking for and thought 'Whoa, whatever this is, it must be huge.' Swallowing, Astrid raised her right hand and said "I, Astrid Hofferson, do swear on my father's soul that I will keep a calm head and allow Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third to explain his secret to me before I ask questions and/or freak out."

Hiccup took another deep breath and said "Alright then, come with me." Hiccup turned around and walked down the path leading into the canyon, and Astrid cautiously walked after him. When they reached the bottom, her eyes darted around taking in the large lake in the center and the rather large pile of boulders on the side of the entrance. She looked down in surprise as Hiccup grabbed her hand but easily followed as he pulled her to stand halfway to the lake and turned her to face the boulders before he gently pushed her down and she took the hint to sit.

Astrid's eyebrow rose as Hiccup positioned himself to sit directly behind her and the other joined it when Hiccup wrapped his arms around her shoulders and laid his head over her left shoulder. Hiccup took another deep breath and said "Aright. Astrid, do you remember that raid just about over a month ago where I said I shot down the Night Fury and it landed near Raven Point?"

"Yeah, you wanted to have a search party go out and find it. But your dad told you it would be too dark." Astrid said before she frowned and continued "I don't remember hearing about any parties going out the next day though."

"Yeah well, dad was pretty confident that wouldn't have been necessary, and in a way he was right." Hiccup said before taking yet another deep breath and Astrid was starting to become concerned with how many times her best friend seemed to need to fortify himself. Continuing, Hiccup said "The next morning, I found where the Night Fury had made landfall. There was this massive trench that it had dug up when it hit the ground. Following it, I found the Night Fury, and to my surprise, it was still alive."

Astrid tensed but relaxed when Hiccup squeezed her shoulders and said "It was all tangled up in the boa I had hit it with. Its left tail fin was also ripped off and nowhere to be seen, making it impossible for it to ever fly again under its own power. Seeing this, I had told myself that it would have been a mercy to kill it, but something happened when I got close enough to do the job."

Hiccup sighed and continued "Just as I had put the tip of my knife over its heart, the dragon opened its eyes and looked up at me, and I saw both fear and resignation. At that moment, I realized something." Astrid saw out of the corner of her eye Hiccup's own eyes closing as he continued "While I had no problem inventing weapons that could fight, and as we've seen from the launchers on our towers, kill dragons, when it came time to kill them with my own hands, I couldn't do it. I felt like such a hypocrite."

'He couldn't kill the Fury? But he has shown no problems with fighting dragons during training.' Astrid thought with wide eyes as she tried to understand what was going on.

Hiccup sighed again and said "I couldn't just leave him trapped in the bola either, since that would be worse, so I began cutting the ropes." He saw the Are you stupid? look Astrid gave him and chuckled as he said "Yeah, not my brightest moment. Anyway, as soon as the last rope was cut, the dragon had jumped up and pinned me to a nearby boulder. I thought that it was going to kill me, but before it did, something happened, I still don't know what, and the beginnings of a mental link formed between us before the dragon took off into the woods. When I finally got home that night, I told dad that I had found the Night Fury, but that it was already dead."

Astrid's eyes widened as Hiccup told her that he had basically committed treason with that statement. Before she could say something about that Hiccup continued "I told him that I wasn't sure if I could actually kill dragons when it came to crunch time, but dad said that I would in time. On that note, he had me start training with you guys. When Gobber told us that dragons always go for the kill, it made me wonder why the Fury didn't when it had me dead to rights. So I tracked him down to this canyon."

Astrid noted the change from it to him as Hiccup gestured to the entrance and said "That entrance over there, it wasn't so easy to get through when I first started coming here, so needless to say, he couldn't get out. When we made eye contact, we were able to sense each other's emotions. After that, I worked on gaining his trust, and helping him become able to get out of this canyon. You can see the results of our work there."

Hiccup nodded to the entrance and Astrid's eyes widened as she noticed for the first time how some of the rock surrounding it had charred black edges. Astrid's head snapped back to Hiccup's as she said "Are you telling me there's a Night Fury currently running loose around this island?!"

To Astrid's shock, Hiccup grinned at her and said "He's not running around loose, Astrid. He's in this canyon with us right now. You can come out now Toothless." Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as Toothless walked out from behind the pile of boulders. Astrid jerked as her hand moved for the knife in her vest only for Hiccup's hand to cover the handle as he said "Easy Astrid, he's not going to hurt you unless you give him a reason to. Remember, you said that you would let me explain everything, and I plan to."

Toothless swept his tail upwards in an imitation of a wave before he shot towards the bank of the lake and took a leaping glide and settled on the other side. Astrid relaxed as the dragon put the body of water between her and him before she took a deep breath and said "Alright Hiccup, I'm going to trust you on this, so please continue."

Hiccup nodded and said "After we had widened the entrance so that way he wouldn't have to rely on me bringing him food, we worked on getting him back in the air." Hiccup released Astrid and walked over to the pile of boulders and to Astrid's surprise revealed the cubbyhole inside before pulling out the saddle and tail fin and walked back over to Astrid and placed them down in front of her.

Astrid looked at the saddle incredulously and said "You actually ride him?!"

Hiccup grinned at her and said "It is like nothing I have ever experienced before Astrid." His grin fell as he continued "But it's not all just a basket of roses though. As our mental link grew to the point where we could use words to talk to each other, Toothless told me just why the dragons were attacking us. Astrid, what do you know about Green Deaths?"

"Only that they're biggest things known to man and that they have a penchant for wiping civilizations off the map." Astrid said before her eyes widened as the implications of Hiccup's question hit her like a charging Gronkle and she said "Are you telling me that there is a Green Death somewhere around this area?!"

"And it's forcing the other dragons to attack us under the threat of it killing all of them and wiping out this village." Hiccup said with a heavy frown on his face. Looking down, he continued "It wiped out half of the dragons' nest when it first arrived. Ever since then, it has forced them to attack us to feed it." Gesturing at Toothless, he said "Toothless thinks that we might have a chance to beat it, but only if dragons and Vikings can work together."

"Which is why you told me all this." Astrid said as she looked down at the vest Hiccup had made her, more specifically the rope that was still hanging from it and continued "You're hoping that if you can get me to trust a dragon, then the rest of the villagers could follow." Looking back up at Hiccup, she held the rope up and said "That's why you wanted me to wear this, so that way I could go for a ride on Toothless with you, if things worked out but do you think he'd really let me ride him?"

Hiccup grinned as Toothless shot back across the lake and said "Why don't we ask him?"

Toothless studied Astrid for a moment before he turned towards Hiccup and sent 'You chose well Hiccup, I cannot smell any terror from her, just a small amount of natural fear of something she is not sure of. I do not believe she will do anything rash if we were to include her in the next part of our plan.'

Hiccup blinked in surprise and mentally sent back 'You are already willing to show her the nest when we go there for recon?'

Toothless shrugged his front shoulders and sent 'Like I said before, you know your people better than I do Hiccup. If you think this one could be of help, then I have no problems with that.'

Hiccup turned his attention back to Astrid and gave a thoughtful hum as his head cocked to the side as he considered. Astrid saw this and said "What is it, what did he say?"

"He said that he wouldn't mind bringing you along when he shows me the nest today." Hiccup said and Astrid's eyes widened and she pointed at herself. This caused Toothless to start laughing even as he walked over to sit next to the saddle and tail fin. Getting the hint, Hiccup soon joined him and began attaching the fin as he said "That is of course, if you want to. I know I certainly wouldn't mind your company, and it'd be good to have another opinion." Turning his head to look over his shoulder as he tightened the last strap of the saddle, he said "So do you want to see what flying is like?"

Astrid bit her lip for a moment before she sighed and said "Ah, what the Hel? Yeah, I'll come."

Hiccup shot her a grin that threatened to split his face as he said "That's great! Trust me Astrid, you won't regret this."

Astrid sighed and muttered "I hope not." Before she walked over and mounted Toothless behind Hiccup who quickly hooked both of their ropes onto Toothless' saddle. As he did this, he said "Alright buddy, please take us above the cloud layer as quickly as possible. Astrid, you may want to hold on."

Astrid's eyes widened as Toothless' powerful wings rose as high as they could and she barely wrapped her arms around Hiccup's waist before they shot back down and Toothless launched himself into the sky in a rapid accent that had her screaming in both fear and excitement as the dragon devoured the distance between them and the cloud layer above them. Then they were suddenly shooting through a cloud and visibility dropped to nothing for a moment before they came out of the other side and Toothless leveled off into a glide.

Hiccup took his hands off the front of the saddle and wrung the moisture out of his hair before he calmly lessened Astrid's grip as he said "Sorry about that, but with it still being daylight out here we needed to get up high fast to narrow the possibility of anyone on this side of the island seeing us."

"Perfectly understandable." Astrid muttered as she tried to get her breathing under control. Then she looked down and gasped at the sight of the island as the cloud they burst through continued on its way revealing her home to her. Hiccup chuckled and said "Quite a sight isn't it?"

Astrid nodded before she yelped as Toothless adjusted his wings and they turned away from the island. Toothless gave the island one last look over his shoulder before he started flapping his wings and sent 'It's half an hour to the nest at sprinting speeds Hiccup, so I suggest you and your friend get comfortable.'

Hiccup nodded even as he leaned back forward to reduce air speed and said "Toothless says we've got half an hour before we reach the nest."

He felt Astrid's arms tighten around him as she too leaned forward and he grinned as she said "Great, I always wanted to visit a nest full of hundreds of fire breathing lizards, should be fun." Toothless laughed before he put on a burst of speed and the trio shot away from Berk, on their way to another settlement, this one inhabited by dragons.


End file.
